The commercial imperative to extract money from human bodies is playing havoc with medical education, and the body of knowledge through which the medical professions operate. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the field of vaccines, and their place in determining the length of our lives.
The History of Living Longer
As a medical student, I was taught that the reason we in wealthy countries now live far longer than our forebears was improvements in living conditions, sanitation, and nutrition. We don’t walk through sewage and horse dung each day, eat fly-blown meat, drink water from below the nearest latrines, or sleep eight to a room on rancid bedding. We get beaten less often and have more leisure time. Antibiotics also helped but came after most of these gains had been achieved.
Most vaccination came even later, mopping up some residual mortality in ‘vaccine-preventable diseases.’ This was all stated in a lecture hall of 300 medical students, with the relevant data to back it up, and accepted as fact. Because for wealthier countries it was, and is, undeniably true.
I recently asked a small group of students the major reasons for improved life expectancy, and was told “vaccination.” In a subsequent session, I showed some of the graphs laid out below. The students were shocked and asked where I obtained this information. It was actually fairly difficult to find. I remember searching 20 years ago and readily finding it on the web.
In 2024, it took a lot of sifting through information explaining how vaccinations have apparently saved humanity, and how those repeating what I was taught as a student were a subversive element undermining the greater good, spreading misinformation or similar daft claims. We have certainly not progressed.
This does not mean vaccines are not a great idea. Providing some immunity before an infection can mitigate much of its harm by giving the body a head start in fighting back. It just means their usefulness must be understood in context, as must their harms. Somewhat strangely, discussion of vaccines has become increasingly controversial within the medical establishment. It is as if an Inquisition has been imposed over the profession, seeking out anyone still prioritizing calm rational thought over a dogma dictated from above. However, if truth and calm discussion can form an anchor for policy, vaccination will be more effective.
The charts shown here, from Australia, the United States, and England, reflect those of other wealthy countries. The same findings are reflected in various published papers. Facts are facts, even if they may with time become harder to find, buried under Big Search algorithms to keep us safe. They remain facts even if medical students are taught to believe alternate realities. Such false teaching, coupled with large financial incentives, drive their desire to ensure children be ‘fully vaccinated’ according to their country’s childhood schedule. They increasingly believe a lie, undeniable misinformation, that this is why most children in our countries now grow up without experiencing the death of a friend or sibling.
Hellbound and Down 