3 ms·

> Measles Fatality rate of 0.2%. Worst fatal complication: Pneumonia, for which the biggest risk factor is immunodeficiency from malnutrition. > mumps Fatali

> Measles Fatality rate of 0.2%. Worst fatal complication: Pneumonia, for which the biggest risk factor is immunodeficiency from malnutrition. > mumps Fatality rate of 0.04%. Worst fatal complication: Encephalitis, for which the biggest risk factor is immunodeficiency from malnutrition. > rubella This one's nasty when it infects a pregnant mother. All women should get rubella vaccinated. > polio Fatality rate of up to 30% and debilitating post-effects in up to 50%. You'd be an idiot not to get polio vaccinated. > diphtheria Penicillin works. > Smallpox Was eliminated with a vaccine that is no longer administered. You said: > We associate disease as being mostly mild now because we took decisive action over a couple centuries to reduce, treat or prevent the worst diseases. My point is that the diseases were bad because there wasn't enough food to maintain healthy immune systems. That's not "decisive action", that's farming and trade. It was the cooking of food and the boiling of water and the washing with soap that prevented deaths from most diseases. In researching this reply, I've found a respect for some vaccines though. But I still hold food and our natural immunity as the undisputed kings of healthy living.

Izkata 4y ago
> > polio > Fatality rate of up to 30% and debilitating post-effects in up to 50%. Only if you developed paralytic polio. Those percents don't apply to the polio virus in general. Only 3% ever developed anything worse than flu-like symptoms, and paralytic polio was something like 10% of that 3%. (I'm going from memory here, these numbers are on the CDC website) So we're talking an IFR around 0.1%, very close to the estimated flu IFR of 0.07%
graeme 4y ago
To be clear: I was talking about the past. The original comment covered the whole breadth of human evolutionary history. We vanquished these diseases in the past 50-100 years mostly. My argument is that diseases did not just all become benign without intervention Native Americans, to take one example, were incredibly healthy in their traditional lifestyles. This did not give their immune systems sufficient strength to fight off smallpox and other diseases.

Izkata 4y ago

> > polio > Fatality rate of up to 30% and debilitating post-effects in up to 50%. Only if you developed paralytic polio. Those percents don't apply to the polio virus in general. Only 3% ever developed anything worse than flu-like symptoms, and paralytic polio was something like 10% of that 3%. (I'm going from memory here, these numbers are on the CDC website) So we're talking an IFR around 0.1%, very close to the estimated flu IFR of 0.07%

graeme 4y ago

To be clear: I was talking about the past. The original comment covered the whole breadth of human evolutionary history. We vanquished these diseases in the past 50-100 years mostly. My argument is that diseases did not just all become benign without intervention Native Americans, to take one example, were incredibly healthy in their traditional lifestyles. This did not give their immune systems sufficient strength to fight off smallpox and other diseases.