At the exact same time as the vaccine push, polio diagnosis was broken into three diseases: Polio, meningitis, and flaccid paralysis. Even without vaccination, that split of diagnosis would have cut the "polio" rate considerably.
With the diagnostic criteria changed, there is no way to tell if they had an effect or not. It's all null data, meaningless. We simply don't know now, because of this factor, if the vaccine helped at all.
view the rest of the comments →
RockAndNoWater ago
I tend to think the bane of humankind is diseases like polio, which vaccines help us control.
FisherOfMen ago
Check your givens.
At the exact same time as the vaccine push, polio diagnosis was broken into three diseases: Polio, meningitis, and flaccid paralysis. Even without vaccination, that split of diagnosis would have cut the "polio" rate considerably.
With the diagnostic criteria changed, there is no way to tell if they had an effect or not. It's all null data, meaningless. We simply don't know now, because of this factor, if the vaccine helped at all.
RockAndNoWater ago
So you think polio in the U.S. disappeared by itself? Do you think smallpox died out by itself?
FisherOfMen ago
You said that, not me.
I said from the numerical data given, and the circumstances of the changed diagnostics, there is no "cause/effect" to be determined by those numbers.