Opinion: In the shadow of Covid-19 lurks the threat of a fearful measles outbreak
I grew up in the 1940s and 1950s. My mother had polio. I and all of my friends got the typical childhood viral illnesses like measles, chickenpox, and the mumps because there were no vaccines to protect us from them. Some children became very sick with these common illnesses, and some died.
In the 1960s and 1970s, I trained as a medical scientist and pediatrician. During those and subsequent decades, the practice of pediatrics changed dramatically as vaccines were perfected for one after another of these common but serious childhood illnesses. Childhood meningitis, sepsis, pneumonias, and gastroenteritis vanished. The number of cases and deaths dropped almost to zero wherever vaccines could be administered.
