The polio vaccine was introduced in the 50s. Please explain how polio was in "massive decline" before then.
> Hygiene and sewage systems have saved far more than vaccines did.
Whether that's true or not (feel free to provide data), it's irrelevant. Vaccines have saved hundreds of millions of lives.
> Viruses usually mutate to milder but faster spreading strains. It is heresy to say so though.
It's not heresy, but it's wrong. You're propagating an idea from the 19th Century. It's not considered correct any longer. It's at best a very simplified view.
If it were true, humans would be untroubled by viruses, but clearly that is not the case. Viruses evolve to spread effectively; as long as they spread faster than they kill their victims they continue to spread.
Flu regularly comes up with strains that are more dangerous than previous years, the 1918 pandemic being a case in point.
Polio didn't become less mild. Lots of other viruses have not.
The only human disease we've ever eradicated is smallpox. But semantics aside...
Here's a graph of polio cases in the US.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-polio-rates...
The polio vaccine was introduced in the 50s. Please explain how polio was in "massive decline" before then.
> Hygiene and sewage systems have saved far more than vaccines did.
Whether that's true or not (feel free to provide data), it's irrelevant. Vaccines have saved hundreds of millions of lives.
> Viruses usually mutate to milder but faster spreading strains. It is heresy to say so though.
It's not heresy, but it's wrong. You're propagating an idea from the 19th Century. It's not considered correct any longer. It's at best a very simplified view.
If it were true, humans would be untroubled by viruses, but clearly that is not the case. Viruses evolve to spread effectively; as long as they spread faster than they kill their victims they continue to spread.
Flu regularly comes up with strains that are more dangerous than previous years, the 1918 pandemic being a case in point.
Polio didn't become less mild. Lots of other viruses have not.