Penicillin. How many lives have been saved using it? It is foolish to not use it now because it might be ineffective in the future.
And the efficacy of antibiotics might have more to do with people not taking it properly (not finishing the prescription). Not using the drug itself.
The issue with people not taking the whole dose is only ONE of several issues with antibiotic overuse.
You will spend ever increasing money on a program that will fail. Horribly. You will either run out of money ($50B/year is conservative) or create something you simply can’t make a vaccine for in time to prevent 1918 fast enough. Or both.
And some diseases have evolved to benefit us. Even if they seem problematic up front:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20559706
Synopsis. Having mumps prior to pubery is PROTECTIVE against ovarian cancer in women. The vaccine does NOT offer this protection.
And you never did address the ASIA issue. Increasing evidence that overexposure to aluminum adjuvants leads to autoimmune diseases. Which have skyrocketed over the past 20 or so years.
Vaccines are useful to control a particular disease only IF you have a means to prevent that disease from ‘escaping’ your vaccination strategy. We do not at this point.
Ever heard of tea tree oil? Colloidal silver? Manuka honey? Garlic? Apple Cider Vinegar? They are all nature’s antibiotics that you don’t have to worry about becoming ineffective.
Pertussis vaccination has been VERY effective at eliminating the strain that’s in the vaccine.
It has NOT eliminated all the pertussis strains however.
My generation was ‘saved’ from a version of pertussis. Now we are susceptible to a strain with TEN TIMES the mortality and morbidity of the one we would have gotten in childhood.
No vaccine covers this new strain.
It’s the wild wild west all over again with the new version.
Try for a strain that’s got 100X the mortality and morbidity of the old one?
You eliminate the ‘mild’ one and set yourself up for the really really bad one.