At 11:11 AM 5/02/00 -0500, Robin wrote:
>
>Here are the questions to ask:
>1) How much have vaccines contributed to health?
>The answer to the first question seems to be: suprisingly low.
Goodness, no. Vaccination remains the only effective treatment
for smallpox, even today. Given that smallpox is transmitted
through the air human-to-human, and that it's mortality is ~30%
in populations adapted to it, and that virtually everybody used
to get it, about 2 billion owe their lives to that one.
Some others I can think of are whooping cough, polio (already
mentioned by others), and hepatitis B. The rate things are
going on the antibiotic resistance front, we may have to
revive the staph aureus vaccine soon.
I'm glad I got the measles
vaccine and I really wish the chickenpox vaccine had been
available when I was younger. I could pass on the scars and
I'm *not* looking forward to shingles. I know my life wasn't
greatly endangered by either (some for measles, I know) but
still...
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