I am 53, and from a generation that received relatively few vaccinations.
I did, however, receive the BCG vaccination against tuberculosis. This vaccine is no longer given routinely in the Western world, because TB has almost been wiped out in the West (proof, if you think, that vaccines are not handed out like M&Ms).
However, a few miles from where I grew up, you’ll find this:
A collection of houses and cottages, probably big enough at the time to be called a hamlet.
8 families, 3 or 4 generations.
Every one dead, to the last member.
Tuberculosis.
These properties are still standing because there is no heir.
NO ONE SURVIVED.
There are, of course, some dipshits who would just go to the next house along the road, and say “Look, here’s a family that survived TB! Therefore people in the past had stronger immune systems.” Because those who died, those whose health was permanently destroyed, aren’t around for these dipshits to point at.
A vaccination I did not get was the infamous MMR.
Instead, I got the measles, like everyone did back then.
And like a significant number of people who got the measles, including my mother and a great-aunt, it damaged my eyesight. Fortunately, I did not get rheumatic fever, like my uncle; or die, like a great-uncle and many of his little friends in the epidemic that left his sister blind (yes, the great-aunt I just mentioned).
People in the past did NOT have good immune systems.
They DIED. In droves, in millions.
You just know nothing about them, because they’re dead.