@tracy_tysonmd: “They were already disappearing before vaccines.” This claim usually relies on graphs showing that death rates from some infections were declining before vaccines were introduced—but it leaves out the most important part of the story. Better sanitation, nutrition, antibiotics and hospital care made children more likely to survive an infection. But children were still getting infected. Before the measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, measles still infected an estimated 3–4 million Americans every year. Widespread vaccination then caused measles disease rates to collapse. (CDC) And the benefit may have extended beyond preventing measles itself. Researchers found that measles incidence was closely linked to deaths from other infectious diseases for the following 2–3 years. Measles can damage previously acquired immune memory—sometimes called immune amnesia—leaving children more vulnerable to infections they had previously been able to fight. (PubMed) After measles vaccination was introduced and measles circulation fell, deaths from other childhood infections fell alongside it. That population-level evidence does not mean every decline was caused solely by vaccination—but it strongly contradicts the idea that vaccines added nothing to childhood health. Sanitation helped children survive disease. Vaccines prevented disease, disability, hospitalization and death. Both mattered. But clean water did not make measles disappear. Vaccination did. #VaccinesWork #Measles #MMR #ImmuneAmnesia #VaccineEducation

Tracy Tyson MD

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Sunday 02 August 2026 22:42:00 GMT