I did read the debate in the BMJ. There was a suggestion about rubella, which I repeated here. Why not limit the vaccine to adults who choose to have it, including women of childbearing age, if they have not already developed natural immunity?
You mentioned typhus again. And "diet and exercise." I think perhaps you don't know where I'm coming from. It depends on what kind of diet, and I would argue that the diet needs nutritional supplementation, e.g. with fish oil and vitamin C for a start. A lot of work has been done in the orthomolecular treatment of disease. I would be willing to bet that "Typhoid Mary" wasn't taking vitamin C.
This source, from the University of Washington in Seattle, talks about how natural treatments such as vitamin C (referred to as AA, or ascorbic acid) have been used in the past to treat a range of diseases, including typhus.
Miscellaneous, Primarily Bacterial. Bacterial infections were studied in the 1930's and 1940's by researchers who published hundreds of papers but used inadequate doses because of their conviction that AA was a vitamin. However, their findings were sufficiently encouraging that it appeared almost certain that the "massive" doses used by Klenner and Cathcart would cure the following infections (some rapidly): diphtheria, dysentery, leprosy, pertussis, pneumonia, TB, typhoid fever, typhus (and other rickettsial diseases). These papers were reviewed by Irwin Stone (1972) who introduced Pauling to AA. Klenner reported serious bacterial infections including diphtheria, hemolytic strep and staph clear within hours following one injection of AA, as sodium ascorbate of course, 0.5 to 0.7 g/kg body weight and "run in through a 20G needle as fast as the patient's cardiovascular system will allow" (1974,p.49). And, he reported (1974,p.62) that "massive daily doses will also cure tuberculosis..." but we have been unable to find how massive (50, 100 g/d?) or for how long (months, year?); this may not be difficult to determine in NZ, using "bowel tolerance." It has been demonstrated by Sirsi (1952) that a bactericidal level in vitro and in body fluids for virulent Mycobacterium tuberculosis is 10 mg%. Humans with sufficient AA intake to maintain the bacteriostatic level for TB (only 1 mg%) do not develop TB. In a 5-year follow-up study of 1100 men originally free of TB, 28 cases developed, all in the group with substandard blood AA levels (Stone, 1972,p.81). Cathcart (1981) has reported that serious uncontrollable infections by antibiotic resistant bacteria (necrotizing fasciitis, etc) can be successfully treated in a week with megadose AA along with the antibiotic, ineffective alone. The necessity of high AA in wbc for cmi has been stressed above.
Much good work was done in the past with using vitamins for treatment of various conditions, which was named orthomolecular medicine by Linus Pauling. Unfortunately Pauling encountered some problems, particularly as the result of a series of studies at the Mayo Clinic which did not reproduce his methods, yet declared that vitamin C research was a waste of time and no one should continue to pursue it. Interest seems to be increasing in recent years, as you can see if you do a search on Pubmed.
You ask why wealthy people contracted typhus. I need to know the year you are referring to so I can look up information. What I would say is that "eating your Wheeties" isn't going to protect you, you're right. But vitamin C megadosing might. We know that the gene that enabled our ancestors to synthesise their own vitamin C (as most other animals do) was lost probably a few million years ago. Presumably they were able to get adequate amounts from their diet. That is unlikely to be the case now for most people. Comapring the amounts of vitamin C that other animals synthesise, Pauling estimated that if we were to synthesise our own we would probably be producing 3-10 grams a day, and more when we are injured or ill.
Maybe you can see now, one reason why I have faith in diet and supplements. They can be protective and they can help with healing.
Remember, also, that I am not against vaccines per se. I support people's choice not to have them. (Why would this be a danger to others if the vaccines work as well as everyone says they do?) I also think that if there were a major outbreak of a virulent disease, then of course a vaccine should be available. This is the case in many developing countries today. Vaccines should not, however, excuse leaders from the responsibility of providing better living conditions for their people. Often an improvement in these will make a significant difference in the number and severity of diseases contracted.
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