The CDC’s website has an article titled “14 diseases you almost forgot about thanks to vaccines.”
Here is the list:
- Polio
- Tetanus
- Influenza
- Hepatitis B
- Hepatitis A
- Rubella
- Hib (Haemophilus influenza type B)
- Measles
- Whooping cough
- Pneumococcal disease
- Rotavirus
- Mumps
- Chickenpox
- Diphtheria
Polio is the most notable virus to be eradicated by vaccines.
But influenza? No chance. Influenza has not by any means been eradicated, although in fairness the CDC article doesn’t say it has. It only says that there is an annual flu shot, which we all know.
Influenza has not been eradicated by vaccines. According to USA Today’s “Fact Checkers,” vaccines haven’t eradicated the flu at all, they have only “reduced the burden” of the illness:
The CDC’s timeline shows the first influenza vaccine was produced in 1942, and licensed for use in civilians in 1945 – 75-78 years ago.
By 1947, scientists realized the composition of the influenza virus had changed, rendering the vaccine ineffective.
The “recurring mutations” of the influenza virus make it impossible to vaccinate against every strain of the flu. Each season’s flu shot is composed of “the most frequent strains isolated in the previous season,” according to a study in the Journal of Preventive Medicine and Hygiene.
Sometimes, the previous season’s strains are a close match with the upcoming season’s strains – and sometimes, they’re not. That impacts effectiveness.
Studies show that vaccination reduces the risk of illness by 40% to 60% when the flu viruses circulating are well-matched to the vaccine, according to the CDC.
Though the influenza vaccine has not eradicated the flu, it has lessened the burden of the virus on the USA.
The 1918 Spanish Flu was not eradicated by vaccine, as flu vaccines were not invented way later. There were, according to Wikipedia, 4 waves of the Spanish Flu virus between February 1918 and April 1920, and here’s how it ended: “By 1920, the virus that caused the pandemic became much less deadly and caused only ordinary seasonal flu.”
In other words, over time it mutated into a less lethal virus and eventually subsided.
There are seven coronaviruses currently known right now:
- SARS-CoV-1 has no vaccine.
- MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) has no vaccine.
- NL63 (the “Alphacoronavirus”) has no vaccine.
- 229E (one of the viruses that causes the common cold) has no vaccine.
- OC43 (“Betacoronavirus,” also one that causes the common cold) has no vaccine.
- HKU1 (very uncommon) has no vaccine.
None of them have vaccines.
Yet we expect to eradicate Covid-19 with a vaccine?
Maybe it was always a lie, this idea that the vaccine would make Covid go away. It seems more likely that Covid will just become endemic and mutate into something similar to the regular influenza virus, which is what the Spanish Flu variant did.
The Omicron variant, which is much less severe than the earlier variants, seems to be evidence of this.