@starryspice @GeekShui @PhineasDelgado so there's a lot of "if's and when's" in the thinking here.

The reason it childhood diseases don't happen as often anymor e because the majority of kids are immunized. Those who are not immunized are pr otected via "herd immunity". That is: since the prevalence of the disease in the population is low (because most kids are immunized) the chances of it existing are low, and the chances of contracting it are low. That's why we immunize. If we stopped immunizing all these diseases would skyroc ket. Are all of these diseases deadly? No but they do have long term consequence s. Chicken Pox can be deadly if there's a fever associated with it. If you immun ize against it you're not getting the virus your getting a part of the virus tha t your body can recognize and say, "oh that's not cool, kill the rest of it too" . Other non deadly but dangerous childhood diseases: Mumps may not be deadly but if contracted as an adult can cause infertility and delayed/stunted growth. Mea sles and rubella can cause mental retardation. Deadly? No. Significant if not im munized? I say yes, but if you don't mind a mentally retarded child that could h ave otherwise been prevented, than obviously that's up to you. Deadly childhood diseases include Haemophilus Influenza Type B (HiB) which can c ause the respiratory system to swell so that the child chokes/suffocates to deat h. Tetanus which causes fevers, spasms which can be deadly. Pneumococcus which c auses a type of pneumonia and/or meningitis. Polio which we should know the hist ory of. Diphtheria and Tetanus are also respiratory infections that can cause su ffocation. Most of these diseases are found rarely, now-a-days, because of our efforts to i mmunize. There is no credible source that says any of these vaccines cause autis m or any other kind of MR. Most diseases can be prevented by washing our hands. But not everyone washes the ir hands, hence the prevalence of E. Coli diarrhea, H. pylori (may cause ulcers) , etc. And when your kid/partner that has the flu sneezes in your face, good luc k preventing that by washing your hands. People just don't take the personal res ponsibility to take care of themselves or each other. Vaccinating against "common strains" works because we're protecting against the most common threat. Like when anti-virus programs for computers look for the mos t common, threats, ports, malware, malicious code etc etc. If the most common ca use of dog poo is a dog, then you prevent dogs from pooping on your lawn by keep ing them out. If the most common cause of the flu is F3H4 then we vaccinate agai nst that so less people get it and there's less chance of it spreading and it ke eps the ppl from missing work, losing money etc etc etc.