For centuries, vaccines have been the top life-saving, expert medical intervention known to humans. How can individuals make the right call?
The United States used to be a very different place not so long ago. When a new child was born and was first taken to the doctor, the doctor would talk the parents through a schedule of expected care for the first few months and years of the newborn’s life. That expected care included, importantly a schedule for vaccines: a series of inoculations, given at pre-set times in a child’s development, that would protect them against diseases that had ravaged humanity for generations prior. This included protections against diseases such as:
- polio,
- smallpox,
- measles,
- rubella,
- mumps,
- diphtheria,
- pertussis (whooping cough),
- tetanus,
- hepatitis,
- typhoid,
- rabies,
- cholera,
- cervical cancer,
- bacterial meningitis,
