>
> In many areas and countries Polio is as good as gone. Including my
> country. When cases do occur we look to find where else in the world
> they have come from. Vaccination works.
>

Snipping the vast majority of what Russell said, and totally not wishing
to start/engage in a flame war on this subject, my personal opinion of
the matter is that vaccination is its own worst enemy- because of
vaccination (and antibiotics), the current generation of first-worlders is
almost entirely composed of people who have never lost a loved one
to a communicable disease, or, for that matter, never had a loved one
so much as hospitalized by a communicable disease.

Two generations ago, this state of affairs was absolutely inconceivable.

My GUESS is that vaccination rates will continue to drop, until
another pandemic like the Spanish Flu that ended WWI* comes along,
at which point the vax rates will skyrocket for another couple of
generations.

Mike H.

* Some debate on that point of course but it was definitely a strong
contributing factor. I just read a book about the early jet age where
one of the early aviation heroes (may have been Tex Johnston)
recounted remembering visiting an uncle at a military camp in
Kansas and seeing the influenza dead laid out in rows on the
ground to freeze so they could be stored until they could be
disposed of.
--=20
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