My brother was born with a very serious heart defect, which the many doctors who cared for him said was caused by mom being exposed to measles while pregnant. She didn’t even realize this had happened. This was in 1964. It affected our family tremendously: emotionally, mentally, and financially. His life was a miracle — if we had lived anywhere than in Cleveland, Ohio, if Dr Ankeny wasn’t pioneering microsurgery at Case Western during this time frame . . . and willing to try it on an infant with a heart that was horribly damaged . . . it would have been drastically different. Said that the disorder caused his chest cavity to be abnormally large, which gave them just enough extra room to work. Damaged his pacemaker node, and needed a pacemaker until he died at 25. Another miracle, as he was expected to be a vegetable and never walk or talk or learn.
Another child born with the same defect was not as lucky. He did not survive the surgery.
So, if you’ve lived with the devastating consequences of these childhood diseases, and you remember polio . . . you believe the documented evidence and not the attention seeking scare mongers.