The Allergy Epidemic

[ShadowHM]

But, with some diseases like polio or smallpox, given the choice between being allergic to cats and the devastation, I'd stick with the allergies.

What devastation? I don't mean to be facetious about this at all. As an example, the diagnosis of polio seems to be completely correlated with whether or not one has had a polio vaccination. If not, it is labelled polio. If so, the same cluster of symptoms is dubbed viral meningitis.

Smallpox did kill a lot of people. We are all descended from people who had it and survived it.

The incidence of death from the diseases we vaccinate for might well be as high as the incidence of death from allergic responses. Or not. This is a non-studied issue.