Immunization against measles provides effective protection against the disease. A more modest reduction in the risk of a measles diagnosis is associated with breast-feeding.

Whooping cough (also known as pertussis or 100-day cough) is a highly contagious bacterial disease [with] weeks of severe coughing fits. Following a fit of coughing, a high-pitched whoop sound or gasp may occur as the person breathes in. The coughing may last for 10 or more weeks, hence the phrase ‘100-day cough’. The time between infection and the onset of symptoms is usually seven to ten days. Disease may occur in those who have been vaccinated, but symptoms are typically milder [my emphasis]. Figure 2: United States Measles Reported Cases and Deaths per 100,000 Population, 1912-1959 (from Langmuir, 1962, Figure 1). That the drop in diphtheria morbidity and mortality is not wholly due to preventive immunization appears to be indicated by the fact that this decline set in actually in the nineteenth century before diphtheria antitoxin began to be used generally, and continue progressively even before preventive immunization became widespread. The death rate among children up to 10 years of age in New York City was 785 per 100,000 in 1894, declining to less than 300 in 1900; and in 1920, when active immunization of school children began, it fell below 100…Certainly, the downward course of diphtheria morbidity and mortality has at least been accelerated by preventive immunization (Rosen, 1993, pp. 312-314).Syphilis differs from the other diseases in Humphries comparison. It is the only one that depends on “intentional”, avoidable behaviors. The largest measles epidemic in North America in a decade—Quebec, Canada, 2011: Contribution of susceptibility, serendipity and super-spreading events on elimination. author: Gaston De Serres, Institut National de Santé Publique du Québec. In Part 2, I will discuss in more depth changing definitions of paralysis, labs, and differential diagnoses; but as should be clear from the above:

The American Sexual Health Association was founded in 1913 to fight prostitution and the venereal disease epidemic through public education on sexually transmitted disease and working to break down the social stigma attached to venereal diseases. During both World Wars they were instrumental in breaking up prostitution rings targeting military personnel ( Wikipedia. American Sexual Health Association). In 1960 it changed its name to American Social Health Association and continues to this day. Various groups developed programs, including textbooks, “to shape and tame ‘the native capacities’ of impoverished children into socially acceptable, monogamous heterosexuals” (Egan, 2009).Although our findings support a limited role for humoral immunity in the control of replicating virus in measles virus-naive hosts, antibody can certainly mediate protection against measles virus infection. If we consider that nutrition and living conditions were not very terribly different in the 1960s compared to today, and take an average of 500 measles deaths a year from that period, the measles vaccine possibly prevented up to 23 500 measles deaths from 1968 until 2014 in the US alone.

Wild poliovirus was never the big killer or paralyzer the public was led to believe it was through the many frightening images shown repeatedly in the 1950s. Dr. Lennette, a well-respected virologist and pioneer of diagnostic virology with the California Department of Health, said in reflection on September 1987: Figure 1: United States disease incidence from 1912 to 1970 (Graph 12.1 in Humphries, 2013, p. 215) Given what a low-incidence disease it was, how did polio come to be perceived as such an infamous monster? This is a question worthy of consideration, especially in light of the fact that the rate was far less than other common diseases, some of which declined in incidence to nearly zero with no vaccine at all. Those who still embody a fear of polio may argue that it was a monster because it crippled people, especially children. But it was later revealed, after a vaccine was lauded for the eradication of polio, that much of the crippling was related to factors other than poliovirus, and those factors could not possibly have been affected by any vaccine (pp. 212-213). Scientists were surprised when they learned that individuals with a deficit in antibody production recovered from measles just as well as normal antibody producers. […] Therefore the antibody part of immunity is not at all necessary for the natural recovery from measles (p 364). This is based on the mistaken belief (possibly drawing conclusions from the 1963 inactivated measles vaccine) that the measles virus elicits an antibody-only immune response. The reality, however, is that the live measles vaccine elicits both an antibody mediated and cell-mediated immune response. This is discussed in more detail below with citations.

The March of Dimes

Suzanne Humphries, MD and Roman Bystrianyk (2013). “Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines. and the Forgotten History.” CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Dissolving Illusions details facts and figures from long-overlooked medical journals, books, newspapers, and other sources. Using myth-shattering information, this book shows that vaccines, antibiotics, and other medical interventions are not responsible for the increase in lifespan and the decline in mortality from infectious diseases. If the medical profession could systematically misinterpret and ignore key historical information, the question must be asked, “What else is ignored and misinterpreted today?” Most significant primary immunodeficiency states in children will be detected before the age of MMR vaccination, and for such children live virus vaccines should be avoided. Though mortality was exponentially lower with variola minor, the suffering from variola minor could be substantial as shown in Table 3 below: When Silfverdale evaluated thousands of vaccinated and unvaccinated breastfed and non-breastfed children looking at the risk of measles, breastfeeding had a far larger impact on measles risk than vaccinating. (p 389)