Measles, mumps, and polio are considered diseases of the past. In the early to mid-20th century, scientists were able to effectively eliminate the risk of someone getting sick or dying from diseases that had claimed millions of lives over thousands of years of human history. We have developed a vaccine.
Vaccines, along with disinfectant water and antibiotics, marked the era of modern medicine. The United States is Cutting-edge technology to eradicate these diseaseswhich helped boost life expectancy and economic growth in the post-war period. Originally from Montana maurice hillmanKnown as the father of modern vaccines, he developed the influenza shot, hepatitis shot, and measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine in the 1950s and 1960s, which became virtually universally adopted by Americans. now.
The most common form of smallpox is 30% fatality ratehas been eradicated. Senate Republican heavyweight Mitch McConnell could be the last major public figure. Still suffering from polio infection from childhoodLess than a century later it was numb The current President of the United States. Measles is thought to have infected millions of people each year in the United States in the 1800s, but accurate estimates from the time are difficult to obtain. In the early 1990s, thousands of people died From illness every year. It was still infected More than 500,000 people die, with an average of several hundred deaths per year The 1950s and 1960s, before vaccines. Diphtheria is a deadly respiratory infection that killed more than 1,800 people a year from 1936 to 1945, when a vaccine was still being developed. There have been no deaths from the disease in the United States in decades.
The vaccines that have made this possible are one of the most important achievements in human history. But many Americans appear to be losing faith in vaccines, with President-elect Donald Trump handing control of the top US health agencies into the hands of the nation’s biggest vaccine denier, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. If successful, this alarming trend could accelerate. .
Kennedy has spent much of his public career pushing hard. Error exposed A theory of the link between autism and childhood vaccines. he has supported Anti-vaccination group in Samoa. Measles vaccination rates have since declined. 2019 trends killed Eighty-three people attended, just months after President Kennedy visited the island and met with anti-vaccination supporters. he as well raise doubts That position helped push lifelong Democrats toward Trump on the safety and effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines. After Kennedy suspended his presidential campaign this year, he became President Trump’s most influential health adviser and was nominated by the president-elect to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last week.
President Kennedy, the day after President Trump’s election claimed that He did not intend to “take away anyone’s vaccine.” Instead, he said he plans to compile vaccine safety information so people can make their own decisions. However, the safety of vaccines has been extensively studied, and the adverse effects Kennedy claims remain undetected. (Others in Trump’s orbit are said Nevertheless, Kennedy will use whatever information he can find to try to pull the vaccine off the market. )
Experts are concerned that his appointment legitimizes his anti-vaccine stance and exacerbates the public’s growing ambivalence about these important public health measures.
Routine vaccination rates are declining as long-accepted lifesaving public health measures become increasingly politically polarized. Declining rapidly across much of the United States. In the 2019-2020 school year, fewer than 90 percent of K-12 students in three states were vaccinated against measles, mumps, and rubella. By the 2023-2024 school year, 14 states fell below that threshold. The number of states where at least 95% of school children are vaccinated (the recommended level of vaccination to prevent outbreaks) fell from 20 to 11 during the same period.
So it’s no wonder that the number of measles cases in the United States is increasing. more than 4 times From 2023 to 2024. No one has died from measles in the United States. From 2015However, if vaccination rates continue to decline, this highly contagious disease (which can infect even one person) will about a dozen others) spreads more easily, increasing the risk of death for America’s children.
we know how to prevent it. We’ve had amazingly safe and effective shooting for decades. Just keep using it.
