What an amazing confluence of science/logistics/economics/privilege, and, as you demonstrate, sovereignty. As for trickle-down immunology, it only took the smallpox vaccine from 1774 to 1977 to make it from Dorset down to the last case in Somalia. OK, let’s be generous and refer instead to the modern WHO campaign - from 1958, it took almost 20 years of sustained effort to eradicate the disease, somebody could look at the correlation of wealth distribution and vaccine distribution, but I don’t think we’ll be too surprised.
Having grown up in India I cannot tell the immeasurable impacts vaccinations have made. First it was the eradication of smallpox - it was so normal for us to see disfigured people, sometimes blinded, and often a high degree of child mortality. It was a sustained campaigns of extensive vaccination that eliminated the scourge.
That was also the story with Polio (It is resorting unfortunately in Africa). I can list other diseases impacting childhood mortality - diphtheria, whooping cough and so on.
So, no, these diseases would not have vanished without public heath drives using vaccination.
What an amazing confluence of science/logistics/economics/privilege, and, as you demonstrate, sovereignty. As for trickle-down immunology, it only took the smallpox vaccine from 1774 to 1977 to make it from Dorset down to the last case in Somalia. OK, let’s be generous and refer instead to the modern WHO campaign - from 1958, it took almost 20 years of sustained effort to eradicate the disease, somebody could look at the correlation of wealth distribution and vaccine distribution, but I don’t think we’ll be too surprised.
Thanks for another very interesting post!
Loved the article.
Having grown up in India I cannot tell the immeasurable impacts vaccinations have made. First it was the eradication of smallpox - it was so normal for us to see disfigured people, sometimes blinded, and often a high degree of child mortality. It was a sustained campaigns of extensive vaccination that eliminated the scourge.
That was also the story with Polio (It is resorting unfortunately in Africa). I can list other diseases impacting childhood mortality - diphtheria, whooping cough and so on.
So, no, these diseases would not have vanished without public heath drives using vaccination.