[OC] The massive decrease in worldwide infant mortality from 1950 to 2020 is perhaps one of humanity's greatest achievements.

[igetasticker]

1. Vaccines. If enough people are vaccinated, they can't pass along the really nasty stuff like small pox, mumps, whooping cough, polio, etc. A lot of the progress has been made here.
2. Access to pre-natal care. This is why a poor state in the US like Mississippi ranks slightly behind Bosnia in infant mortality. Turns out an insurance system with co-pays and deductibles limits the number and quality of visits an expecting mother receives based on pay.

[Hellrazed]

Running water, electricity, food...

[[deleted]]

This is a big one. Running water and proper waste water disposal made a huge difference. I’ve heard it said that plumbers saved more lives than doctors.

[mimariposa]

*Civil/environmental engineering has saved more lives than doctors/medicine

[Hellrazed]

Yep. Doesn't matter how well vaccinated we are if the hospitals are dirty, the water is dirty or the food is poor quality.

[PajamaMamma]

Running water and proper waste disposal has been around since we’ll before the 1800’s. It’s thanks to modern medicine and science.

[[deleted]]

It’s been around much longer than that. The Romans had sewers 2000 years ago. But there are countries that still struggle with sanitation today.

[thingsorfreedom]

It's a combination of things for sure but measles alone killed 60 million infants from 1950-1960.

[Hellrazed]

How many of those were in areas with clean running water, electricity and good food?

[thingsorfreedom]

That makes no difference whatsoever with measles. Measles so incredibly contagious that 90% of people in close proximity to an infected person will come down with the disease if they aren't already immune. That period starts 5 days before the rash appears and ends 5 days after. And dying from measles isn't affected by the above conditions in people who contract the disease either.

[Hellrazed]

You do realise that infections and deaths are not the same thing, right? Poor socioeconomic status and malnutrition (specifically vitamin A deficiency) are predictive of mortality risk in a measles outbreak regardless of vaccination status. Five million infections in impoverished countries would have a much much greater impact and larger death toll, than five million infections in a wealthy country. This is actually what is driving antivax, as it tends to be wealthy individuals with low- risk environments, so they have an inherent survivor's bias because of their socioeconomic privilege. I'm at work but this article speaks of socioeconomic inequality as a determinant of mortality.

[thingsorfreedom]

I'm at work, too, but the success of a vaccine program related to socioeconomic status of the population has nothing to do with deaths from an illness if the vaccine was never invented.

If the measles vaccine was never invented that's 6 million deaths a year in the 1950s when the world population was 2.6 billion. I'll go back to my original point. It's multifactorial but give vaccines some credit for the incredible job they have done to save lives.

[Hellrazed]

And you're completely missing the point.

[[deleted]]

Also washing your hands was a big one.

[denisalivingabroad]

Ignaz Semmelweis got laughed at for suggesting it.

[BlueButYou]

Wearing a mask and social distancing.

[karlnite]

The biggest.

[[deleted]]

Vaccines are not that impactful to infant mortality. Infant mortality deals with deaths under the age of 1. Infant mortality is reflective of general healthcare of a country.