Yeah, but it wasn't all from childhood viral diseases. Burns from open fires accounted for a lot and bacterial infections and lack of good medical care for some too. Injuries and broken bones, appendicitis, allergic reactions,... No way we'd have a 50% mortality rate just from childhood diseases these days. It didn't happen when I was a kid and things are much better now. That's just alarmism.
Childhood diseases that are now preventable once used to spread a wide swath of death and destruction through this country, and they still do in the majority of the world. We're blessed to have the vaccinations that put a stop to this.