The McKeown Thesis

The McKeown Thesis, proposed by Thomas McKeown, suggests that the significant decline in death rates from infectious diseases in the 19th and early 20th centuries was mainly due to improvements in living conditions, nutrition, and public health measures, rather than medical advances like vaccines or antibiotics. Essentially, better sanitation, clean water, and improved diets strengthened people's overall health, making them less vulnerable to disease. While medical treatments played a role later, McKeown argued that broader social and economic factors were the primary drivers behind the dramatic decline in mortality during that period.