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There is this meme going around, which is also used as an anti-vaccine argument, which basically states, that vaccines didn't save millions of lives, because most of the diseases declined by over 90% before the introduction of the vaccines, which can be attributed to better hygiene, cleaner water and better conventional medicine overall.

Does this argument have merit?

Here is the meme in question:

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user1721135
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    Possible duplicate of [Were many vaccine-preventable diseases almost gone before vaccines were introduced?](https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/39295/were-many-vaccine-preventable-diseases-almost-gone-before-vaccines-were-introduc) (see also [Was measles vaccine introduced after the disease was under control](https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/27468/was-measles-vaccine-introduced-after-the-disease-was-under-control)) – tim Feb 18 '19 at 22:07
  • @tim Rats, you beat me to it by about five seconds :) I had a feeling there would be a duplicate, but it took me a while to find. – IMSoP Feb 18 '19 at 22:08
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    Anyone too lazy to click on the duplicate button, note how the claim references incidence while the graphs reference mortality. Cheating. – Andrew Lazarus Feb 19 '19 at 22:24

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