What do you think caused the greatest increase in human life expectancy during the past 200 years? Antibiotics? New medications for heart disease and diabetes? Cancer chemotherapy? New surgical procedures? Advances in medical technology? The Apple Watch? (Apple hopes you believe that. Just watch their ads.)
If you guessed any of these, you are wrong. The answer is not disease treatment, but disease PREVENTION. Sanitation and vaccinations have saved and prolonged more lives than medications, surgeries, medical technology, and the Apple Watch combined.
The 19th and 20th centuries saw the advent of modern public sewage systems and sewage treatment plants, chlorinated water, and pest control. Vaccinations were developed and widely distributed for polio, measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, pneumococcal pneumonia, varicella, group B Haemophilus, influenza, yellow fever, hepatitis A, and Hepatitis B. These vaccines allowed billions of children to survive unscathed into adulthood and allowed billions of adults to avoid infections that would have shortened their lives.
Now the 21st century has a renewed focus on disease prevention. The sanitation aspects are social distancing and face coverings. The vaccination aspect, of course, is the COVID-19 vaccine. Want to live long and prosper? Get vaccinated against COVID-19, wear a mask in public, and keep your distance from potentially unvaccinated people. The COVID-19 pandemic has lingered due to inadequate vaccination rates in the U.S. and worldwide. The vaccines work. They are safe. They are effective. Get yours. Spread hope, not disease.
Dr. G
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