Of course there is a flip side to that. One theory of the rise in the number auto-immune diseases (such as, but not limited to, rhuematoid arthritis) is that we are over vaccinating and over cleaning our environment giving the immune system nothing to do. It gets bored and starts looking for things to attack, which include ourselves.
I read somewhere that one theory for the spread of Crohn's Disease was wood floors. Before that, when kids learned to crawl in the dirt and ate some of the dirt, the worms forced the immune system to develop in a certain way that no longer happens. Here:
Sort of disgusting I admit.
And I remember one day drving along listening to some guy talking about how the over-vaccination of all of us is responsible for the explosion of eczema and such. And I'm looking in the rearview mirror at a tiny patch of eczema on my cheek. Could be I guess, but it went away with a bit of zinc soap.
I got a kick out of an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation that aired years ago. There was a group of scientists who genetically engineered a group of children who's immune system was so advanced that it would attack non-genetically enhanced humans as pathogens. Their immune systems didn't wait for something to invade them, it went outside their bodies looking for bugs.
TDD
Modest correction: I don't think anyone has been vaccinated against Smallpox in the U.S. since about 1980. Nor, for that matter, Chastic Fibrosis (a disease usually found in foxes).
Probably true; if there is no smallpox then no need to vaccinate anymore. That was a nasty disease.
That's why it is feared it may be used as a weapon. There are still biological samples in labs in the US and Russia where I hope the security is never breached so the stuff gets loose again.
TDD
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