A decent shout - how closely does the onset of public handwashing match the inferred benefits of vaccination programs for pox, measles, and polio? I don’t think the dates match up, but would certainly be willing to reexamine my perspective if other data is available.

Also, it is my understanding that autism diagnosis is new, but people exhibiting the basic features of autism spectrum disorders are not new. You can think of the historical designation of people as “mentally retarded” or “idiotic” or even “eccentric” might have often represented an undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder. A child born to an indentured servant may often have simply been designated as “useless” by the landowner.

Things were so fundamentally fucked for plebs in the past, that we often lack good records of the true conditions of the time.