Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines, and The Forgotten History by Dr. Suzanne Humphries and Roma
Why do we believe something? Is it because everyone else believes it? Is it because our family and community believe it? Is it because we were told to believe it by someone in a position of power and respect? Were we taught to believe it in school? Do we believe it because the idea has existed for a long time?
What if what we believed was nothing more than an illusion?
It wasn't long ago when infections plagued the Western world. Smallpox, scarlet fever, measles, typhoid, diphtheria, whooping cough, and other diseases were once considered a tragic part of life. Starting in the mid-1800s, there was a steady drop in the deaths from all these infectious diseases, decreasing by the mid-1900s to very low levels. The elimination of these diseases is one of the most amazing, yet unsung, public health revolutions in history.
That journey from disease cesspool to our modern world is a tale of plagues and famine, crushing poverty and filth, lost cures, individual freedoms versus state might, protests and arrests, and much more. Dissolving Illusions paints a historic portrait with quotes from the pages of long overlooked medical journals, books, newspapers, and other sources to reveal a startling history that has been disregarded. With this historic information and originally researched data in the form of myth-shattering graphs, Dissolving Illusions shines new light onto issues that are assumed to be clear-cut and settled long ago.
