Up to 1845, half of everyone born was dead by age 35. There were no chemicals in their food then, the air & seas were clean, animals were not fed any weird stuff.
Today the average life expectancy has nearly doubled thanks to science, to medicines, to vaccines
In 1835, in the US, 4 in 10 kids didn’t make it to the age of 5
Also: Cleaner water. Pasteurized foods, drinks.
This is St. James’ churchyard, Cooling, near Rochester UK. It’s the place Dickens was thinking about when he wrote of Pip meeting Magwitch, the desperate escaped convict.
The graves of thirteen dead children. This is what used to happen.
And next, my g/g/grandfather: ⬇️
No chemicals in their food?
Before regulation some bakers would put white lead in flower to bulk it out
Vaccines happened!
Actually, one of the biggest contributors to early death was the lack of modern dentistry. When the teeth rot out of their heads, they don’t live much longer. It usually happens around age 45.
I was just watching an interview with @neildegrassetyson.com speaking on this. The increased life expectancy is due to vaccines and advances in medical science. So wild these anti-vaxx people just ignore the science.
and also in the past ..a simple bad tooth could kill you. Sepsis. Child birth. Hygiene. I know that in the U.S many foods & drinks contain chemicals that are banned in other countries. We have science to thank for many things in regards to health, but also the opposite.
Not to mention pregnancy and delivery.
Many died in childbirth and people who were in their 80’s were not kept alive unnaturally, using up a tremendous amount of resources. These two factors brought longevity numbers down. I believe there were fewer cancer and heart related deaths. (I love you Mia.)
Of course, they had religion in 1845 but very little science and no vaccines. The air was probably dirty due to heating and cooking with coal.
Very important observation. Thank you, Mia.
Until the pandemic and until the crazy practices of RFK and recommendations take affect. Hopefully they will not.
I seem to remember something like: It's 35 because of skewed average life expectancy data, meaning they had a really high infant mortality rate & it lowered the average life expectancy. If they left the infant mortality bit out it could be like 70 or something for that same period of time.
Gee, don't tell MAGA!
There was a similar diminished life expectancy for pets before commercial balanced pet foods, vaccinations, and parasite control became standard care.
(and not leaving pets intact to roam around and get hit by cars has helped a lot, too!)
RFK is a superspreader… that’s why he has such an opposition against vaccines. We have actual live monsters who breed diseases and medicine is messing up their brood. This is my conspiracy theory. If you are and advocate for breeding diseases you are not human. We need vaccines.
The uneducated one's will think that they're going to be living forever, every time that they hear a reporter stating how much forever chemicals are either in their blood or drinking water.
Been saying the same for years.
Yeah this is misleading in both directions. It wasn't that people died by age 35, it's that infant mortality was so high it dragged the average age down.
And the air and sea may have been overall clean but sewage and sanitation was an issue.
And he wants to ruin all that for money. Oligarchs have kids, right? Sick
We just fled the 🇺🇲 to 🇵🇹 and we're just getting used to the lack of additives we grew up with back home. I am finding it necessary to add salt or sugar to make the food taste normal, but really that's not normal. And the lack of preservatives is weird too, but it's normal here. Way it should be.
What’s your point?
As a scientist trying to help people understand my science (meteorology) better, thank you for speaking up so forcefully for science.
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Thank you, Dr Tyson!
You need only visit any sufficiently old cemetery and note the number of small children buried there
It’s beyond criminal that Trump/GOP team are destroying (desperately needed) hard-earned scientific progress. Donald deviants are science-ignorants &/or greedy fools.
Mia - The most recent Star Talk Podcast episode by Neil deGrasse Tyson goes deep into human biology and culture. Here's the link: youtu.be/1OA6DcsCA1M?...
And in 2025 under Trump everyone wishes they were dead.
I mean... there definitely were chemicals in their food then. Food adulteration was a massive problem. So was pollution in many places.
Like, I agree about the medical advances made, but that life expectancy change was also about legislating against casually poisoning people.
Yup we need them to keep up with the chemicals pollution and weird stuff now.
Harvard timeline of medical innovations hms.harvard.edu/about-hms/hi...
1799Smallpox vaccineBenjamin Waterhouse introduces the smallpox vaccine to the United States and helps gain acceptance for the new procedure.1843Puerperal fever Oliver Wendell Holmes identifies the cause and prevention of puerperal fever, also known as childbed fever.1846AnesthesiaJohn Collins Warren, the School’s first dean, provides the first public demonstration of anesthesia in surgery.
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A huge part of this is due to drastic decreases in infant mortality rates! HUGE!!!
And the earth is dying.
