BB, if you look at the decrease in deaths for polio (1923 to 1968), measles (1915 to1965) and pertussis (1900 to 1950) you find decreases in the death rates of 70%, 97% and 82% respectively per UK and US govt. data before the vaccines were introduced. After the vaccines were introduced, the decrease tailed off to what we have today. With scarlet fever, for which there was no vaccine, the disease has all but disappeared. So I can't see how it is logical to claim that vaccines have caused the elimination of the diseases - if you are looking at it from a logical point of view, it seems more logical that they have kept them going.
In fact, with polio, data from American states shows that death rates increased by hundreds of % after mass inoculations were introduced. CDC figures from 1973 to 1983 show that 87% of polio cases were caused by the vaccine, tying in with Salk's testimony in 1976 that the live virus was the main, if not the sole, cause of the disease. Many European countries refused to use the vaccine because of the side effects (including death), but the disease virtually disappeared in those countries too.
