I am very fond of quoting Santayana. In his 1905 book, he said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” He was talking about historical events like wars that keep looking just like past wars. However, the same thing can be said about non-historical events.

An example of that is pediatric mortality statistics. In 1930, infectious diseases were a common cause of childhood death. Some of that was related to the lack of antibiotics. Some of that was related to the limited medical care that was available.

However, some of that was related to a lack of ability to provide immunizations for infectious diseases. During their fight for independence, the American colonies lost between 100,000 and 130,000 people to smallpox between the years 1775 and 1782.

Edward Jenner discovered a vaccine for smallpox in 1796. It took almost 200 years but smallpox was declared extinct in 1980. By 1940, there were less than 3,000 cases in the United States. There were never more than that number after that.

We have seen similar things with other diseases. In 1930, diphtheria was the third highest cause of death in children. I actually had two uncles die of it when they were younger. My mother survived it. Whooping cough (pertussis) was the sixth highest cause of death.

Ten years later in 1940, statistics were similar. Diphtheria was the sixth highest cause of death. Pertussis was ninth. The DPT (diptheria-pertussis-tetanus) vaccine was started in 1948. By 1950, neither one of those infections were in the top 10.

However, in 1950 polio had made its appearance in the top 10. It was the sixth highest cause of death. In 1960, it was seventh. In 1961, the oral polio vaccine was approved. By 1970, polio was no longer on the list.

Meningitis made its appearance in the top 10 in 1970 as the eighth highest cause of death in children. It was still in eighth place in 1980. The meningitis vaccine made its appearance in the 1980’s. By 1990, meningitis had dropped out of the top 10.

Most of the people who identify themselves as anti-vaxxers probably have no idea of any of this history. Like Santayana said, if they are not careful, they are condemned to repeat the lessons that history has already taught us.