Ran across this bit of common-sense grounding last night in RFK2's Fauci book:
"Harvard Medical School's Dr. Edward H. Kass, a founding member and first president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and founding editor of the Journal of Infectious Diseases, rebuked his virology colleagues for trying to take credit for [the dramatic decline in mortality during the 20th century], scolding them for allowing the proliferation of 'half-truths . . . that medical research had stamped out the great killers of the past -- tuberculosis, diphtheria, pneumonia, puerperal sepsis, etc. -- and that medical research and our superior system of medical care were major factors extending life expectancy.' Kass recognized that the real heroes of public health were not the medical profession, but rather the engineers who brought us sewage treatment plants, railroads, roads, and highways for transporting food, electric refrigerators, and chlorinated water."