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Deaths from acute infectious diseases had been dropping
dramatically (as much as 98%) before the vaccines
were in general public distribution. The rate of
the decrease did not change after the vaccines were
introduced. As the renowned sociologist Ivan Illich,
Ph.D. writes in his classic Medical Nemesis (New
York: Bantam Books 1976 Chapter 1 - The Epidemics
of Modern Medicine):
The combined death rate from scarlet fever, diphtheria,
whooping cough, and measles among children up to
fifteen shows that nearly 90% of the total decline
in mortality between 1860 and 1965 had occurred
before the introduction of antibiotics and widespread
immunization. In part this recession may be attributed
to improved housing and to a decrease in the virulence
of micro-organisms, but by far the most important
factor was a higher host resistance due to better
nutrition. In poor countries today, diarrhea and
upper-respiratory-tract infections occur more frequently,
last longer, and lead to higher mortality where
nutrition is poor, no matter how much or how little
medical care is available.
When vaccines are introduced, statistics are sometimes
manipulated to artificially decrease the number
of reported cases for a disease. When the whooping
cough vaccine became widely distributed, physicians
tended to stop diagnosing whooping cough in their
patients. It is estimated that only 10% of whooping
cough cases are ever diagnosed. This creates the
illusion of effectiveness.
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