CDC Statistics Show What Happens When You Don't Vaccinate

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18. Year each vaccine was developed

All from Wikipedia articles:
Year - disease
1798 - smallpox (modern versions developed 1940-60s)
1955 - polio (licensed in 1962)
1963 - measles
1948 - mumps
1974 - chickenpox (available in US since 1995)
1930 - whooping cough (new version in the 1980s)

I was born in 1952. In the late 50s and early 60s Mom worked at the local hospital as head nurse in the pediatric ward. She had access to vaccinations and would bring them home to vaccinate us. I still got whooping cough, mumps, measles and chickenpox - most in the years before she was working or before the vaccinations were available.

I knew people that had polio, or that had problems because of exposure to measles (friend's brother was exposed in utero and and serious medical problems, boy in the neighborhood had measles as a pre-teen and got very sick, including hearing problems). I face the threat of shingles because of my chickenpox bout and suspect some of my breathing problems are because of having whooping cough as an infant.

While we survived, I know my Mom would have given us all recommended vaccinations available. She grew up and trained as an RN before most were available and before modern antibiotics were available. She saw what those diseases could do when running rampant through a population.

I think too many people today have forgotten history and how many children died from what are now - thanks to childhood vaccinations - considered just nuisance diseases. I worry about the future when a combination of unvaccinated people and antibiotic resistant diseases will return us to those bad old days.