Most over 50 would be dead without vaccines
In the time of the Roman Empire, over 2,000 years ago, worldwide longevity for humans was about 35 years of age. That did not change until the 1850s. Since 1850, the increase in longevity of humans has been at a rate of about three years each decade. So what happened? Science entered medical practice. Medicine began to move from focusing on the likely outcome of a disease to using science and scientific method to answer medical questions and develop interventions and treatments. A few examples: In 1850, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweiss, a Hungarian physician, proved that hand-washing could reduce fatal infections that were occurring in as many as 25 percent to 30 percent of women who gave birth in the hospital. Dr. John Snow identified that the handle of a water pump on Broad Street in London was the source of cholera. By removing the pump, cases of cholera disappeared quickly.
In the late 1800s, the German physician Robert Koch established the field of microbiology and identified many of the organisms responsible for disease in humans.
Dr. Joseph Lister developed the use of antiseptics to reduce bacterial transmission in surgery. Lister's studies, along with the work of French researcher Louis Pasteur, supported the concept that preventing bacteria from entering the human body could prevent disease. In the 19th century, most of the advances in longevity were the result of preventing bacterial infections, using antiseptic techniques and providing clean water through civil engineering.
As we entered the 20th century, the main causes of death were still bacterial infections: pneumonia, dysentery, bacterial enteritis, diphtheria and tuberculosis. With the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928, the age of antibiotics was born. With effective therapy for many bacterial infections, we lived through life threatening diseases, and lived longer.
But, viral diseases continued to threaten mankind. In the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, polio killed and paralyzed millions of children, teens and adults around the globe. It was a devastating disease that affected the young and struck fear in the heart of every parent around the world. The killed virus vaccine against polio invented by Dr. Jonas Salk (1952) and the attenuated live virus vaccine of Dr. Albert Sabin (1963) eliminated this disease and added years of life to humans.
Like antibiotics before them, vaccines became the main drivers of longevity in the 20th century. Vaccines all but eliminated smallpox, measles, mumps, tetanus, chickenpox, diphtheria, rubella, scarlet fever and Type B meningitis. Vaccines effectively treat flu, hepatitis B, hepatitis A, Haemophilus influenza b, Rotavirus and pneumococcal disease.
So when I hear that people don’t believe in vaccines or are reluctant to get one, I want to say, think again. Next time you visit a relative in your family over the age of 50, take a good look at them. Without vaccines, there is a good chance they wouldn’t be alive today.
And unfortunately, we have evidence of the importance of vaccines when they are not available. This year for the first time in 150 years, mankind lost, on average, an entire year of life because we didn’t have a vaccine for the coronavirus.
So, let’s not ignore over 150 years of science that has led to an increase in longevity for every person on this planet. Get vaccinated! And until you do, wear a mask.