US Preventable Diseases

Around 1900 in the USA and elsewhere, before vaccines were available, almost 20% of children died before their fifth birthday .....

Vaccine–Preventable Disease Morbidity in the United States

.... and the most common causes, were the infectious diseases that can be prevented by the vaccines we have available today.

According to the CDC, since the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program began in 1994, among children born during 1994–2023, routine childhood vaccinations will have prevented approximately 508 million cases of illness, 32 million hospitalisations, and 1,129,000 deaths, resulting in direct savings of $540 billion and societal savings of $2.7 trillion. 

The earliest vaccine was the Smallpox vaccine in 1796, which by around 1850 started being routinely used in both the US as well as many other countries, and later, in the early 20th century, vaccines were created for protection against other diseases like diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, which were later combined and given as the DTP vaccine. 1955 saw the polio vaccine created, followed by vaccines for measles (1963), mumps (1967) and rubella (1969), which were later combined in 1971 into the MMR vaccine. Thanks to the success of vaccination, the World Health Assembly declared smallpox eradicated in 1980 .... so vaccination has been a great health success worldwide. 

But worldwide there is a growing vaccination hesitancy, despite the obvious evidence of its success .... this has largely been fuelled by wild theories and pseudo-science being passed around on the Internet via social media. One of the chief proponents of the false science is the current US Health Secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr ... so it perhaps wasn't a surprise to read this week, that Florida is trying to remove the vaccination requirements for children attending public schools, a decision that some other states are also considering, raising fears that some states in US could see a new era of infectious disease and preventable deaths, driven by lower vaccination rates.

Florida proposes to lift mandates on school vaccination for hepatitis B, chickenpox, Hib influenza and pneumococcal diseases. Any other vaccination laws dropped would require changes to the Florida Administrative Code in the state legislature, so may meet resistance. Surveys suggest that about 80% - of parents in Florida and across the US want vaccine requirements for public schools so there may be a public outcry.

There have already been outbreaks of measles in unprecedented numbers in Florida and other US states, as well as increased cases of whooping cough, or pertussis, which used to be rare, but are now reportedly a monthly occurrence. I guess that the health insurance premiums in the USA will shoot up in those states where public health care is abandoned like this. Of course this vaccination rejection by some groups or individual parents, has already resulted in some children dying in a number of US states. 

Oddly no one is ever charged with manslaughter or child neglect for these deaths, even though they have ignored science or medical advice, and put their and others children at risk of harm or death, by refusing to let them be vaccinated. Again, its the US way, just like guns and mass shootings .... for instance measles was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000, due to the increased measures to vaccinate all children, a situation that has since gone into reverse in the last decade with increased outbreaks of this potentially fatal illness.

As Dr Rana Alissa, the president of the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Paediatrics said about the proposed vaccination changes, "The world is watching. It's dangerous … It's going to cost lives."