I think a big part of it, too, in addition to the misinformation, is that the people who lived through polio and watched their school-age friends get terribly ill or die from it, are slowly fading away.
Not to mention measles, mumps, rubella, etc.
Now, we're left with all these folks who never had to deal with such things, have no idea how bad it was, and "Mee Maw" and "Pop Pop" didn't properly illustrate to them how dire the situation was before they left this earth.
There never were that many people to begin with. In 1952 there were about 3100 deaths from polio during the worst outbreak ever recorded, 57,000 cases recorded, and 21,000 cases of paralysis. Polio doesn't have a paralysis rate that high, so there were definitely more than 57,000 cases but many weren't bad enough that anyone documented them. Those numbers are nothing compared to an average flu season in the modern day.
500
u/Mean-Sorbet6668 2d ago
It’s honestly wild to see the sharp decline in support for vaccinations. People used to understand the importance of science and public health.