History gives such perspective. During a recent stay at a family cottage on the tip of the thumb of Michigan, it was easy to slip back two centuries and catch a glimpse of the towns that were, rather than the current lakeside villages and farms that draw so many.
Visiting a secluded cemetery with grandchildren, most graves stemmed from the late 1700s to early 1900s, revealing a different era in sometimes startling ways.
What happened to these folks? Fire, changing industries and a flu epidemic had all but wiped them out. Their town was gone.
As we scanned the names and dates, it was startling how many infants, toddlers and children were buried there. Again and again family plots told tales of sadness.
âWhy did so many kids die grandma?â I was asked. âThey didnât have the medicine we have nowâ was the simple answer.
To many historians, the magic of immunization took its first public bow on the global stage with smallpox. One of historyâs most feared illnesses with a death rate of 30 percent, the development of a vaccine, proven successful by testing 24 patients in the late 1700s, slashed child mortality rates and prevented lifelong disabilities.
Nearly 100 years later, Louis Pasteur came up with a rabies vaccine and people caught on that vaccines could be developed to weaken or kill viruses and provide immunity against infectious disease. We never looked back.
The first half of the 20th century saw an explosion of vaccines that protected against whooping cough, tetanus, influenza, mumps and more. In the early 1950s, parents were so scared of polio epidemics occurring each summer they were afraid to let their children go to swimming pools.
When the polio vaccine was licensed and made available in 1955, the whole country celebrated. Immunization of infants and children against past scourges became a happy norm.
In the 1960s, vaccines for measles, mumps and other vaccine upgrades came along. In the 1970s, use of the smallpox vaccine was no longer recommended due to successful eradication. Progress in the 1990s and early 2000s included vaccines against chickenpox, pneumonia, hepatitis A and others, transforming the nationâs health.
Manufacturing advances in the 1940s set the stage for global vaccination and disease eradication efforts. The world was proclaimed smallpox free in 1980. In 1985, Rotary launched its international PolioPlus campaign, and in 1988, was a founding member of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative with impressive results in vaccine distribution.
In the U.S., the oral polio vaccine was declared successful and discontinued in 2000.
Toward the end of the 1990s, progress through international immunization programs were stalling. The problem was that although new vaccines were becoming available, developing countries couldnât afford them. International efforts and private foundations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation tried to fill the gap and encourage discounts for poorer countries. Itâs been hard to keep up.
The World Economic Forum called the 2014/2015 Ebola virus outbreak in Africa a wake-up call for how ill-prepared the world was to handle such an epidemic â a perspective sadly born out by COVID-19.
In the States, we may be victims of our own success. Research through the U.S Food and Drug Administration points out, âBecause immunization programs of the 20th and 21st century have been so successful, many of todayâs parents have never seen many vaccine preventable diseases and do not understand the potential for them to re-emerge.â
For example, while measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, cases and outbreaks continue. 2019 marked the greatest number of outbreaks since 1992, with 10 percent requiring hospitalization.
Older people tend to remember and understand prevention. Some harbor feelings that vaccinations are important only for children. This changes however, after youâve watched a loved one suffer from pneumonia or shingles, or not be able to recover from a bad case of the flu. Vaccine prevention becomes welcome.
I had just completed my shingles vaccinations when COVID-19 hit. Current Health Department numbers show 78.1 percent of Berrien County residents 65 and older have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Wise people.
Will I be in line when a booster becomes available? You bet.