Gravestone from a local cemetery. Five children, aged 2 to 15, died from diphtheria in five days.
Diphtheria has a ~10% mortality rate, higher in younger children.
The vaccine against diphtheria is part of the WHO's recommended childhood vaccination program and resulted in a more than 90% decrease in number of cases globally between 1980 and 2000.
Remembering 4th grade, when we got to the story in our social studies book about vaccines. Both my teacher and the teacher next door were probably in the late fifties or early sixties. Mrs. E. next door had survived polio but had long-term muscle weakness in her right hand that made her have to hold up her wrist with her other hand while writing on the board. She talked about people she'd grown up with who'd ended up in iron lungs or otherwise permanently disabled in major ways.
Mrs. P., my teacher, gave a terrifying account of her brother surviving whooping cough by pulling the mucus out of his throat with his fingers.
I was in 4th grade in the early 1990s. Vaccines as a life-saving option are that fucking new. People who survived before they existed were able to tell me first-hand stories. It is beyond shameful that there are so many people willing to put their health and their fucking children's health at severe risk because they want to feel morally superior.
