We recently stumbled across the film during a review of the MSMS archives, and couldn't believe how far we've come -- and how relevant the film remains nearly 70 years later.

According to the film, between 1921 and 1948, childhood deaths from dipthereia in Michigan had dropped from 954 to 23.

Childhood cases of smallpox were almost non-existent in '48, after 4,500 instances a few decades earlier.

And childhood deaths from pertussis -- or whooping cough -- the film explained had plummeted from more than 300 to 63.

There were 0 cases of diphtheria in Michigan in 2015, 0 cases of small pox, and 0 deaths from pertussis. The disappearance of the deadliest childhood diseases had very little to do with luck, and everything to do with immunizations.

We've come a long way in the last seven decades, but the truth is, we've come a long way since January 2015, too.

That's when the state adopted new rules requiring parents who wish to obtain a philosophical exemption from the state's childhood immunization requirements to get the facts about immunizations and sign a consent form at their local County Health Department. It's a common sense rule that protects every parent's right to make medical decisions for their families, while ensuring they have every opportunity to safeguard their kids against deadly diseases and outbreaks.

It's also a rule that's making a huge difference.

Since the state adopted the January 2015 reform to make immunizations and educational information more available to parents, we've seen those waiver rates plummet.

Just last week the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services released new numbers showing that in 2015 waiver rates plummeted 39 percent across Michigan.

Here in the Lansing area, waiver rates are down 29 percent in Eaton County, 30 percent in Ingham, and 55 percent in Clinton.

All told, there were 8,000 fewer waiver requests in 2015 than in the previous year, meaning thousands of children are safer than ever before in the face of deadly but preventable diseases.

Medicine is light years ahead of where it was nearly 70 years ago, but here in 2016, some in Michigan want to turn back the clock on our children's health.

Late last year two dangerous bills were introduced -- House Bills 5126 and 5127 -- to undo state rules that ensure parents get the facts before opting their kids out of being immunized against deadly diseases before they head off to school.

Immunizations work. And so does the reform that ensured parents have access to reliable information before opting children out of lifesaving vaccinations.

Two generations ago, surviving vaccine-preventable diseases might have taken a stroke of "luck." Our parents, grandparents and their physicians saw that children were dying from too many preventable diseases. They took action and saved thousands of lives. Whether in 1948 or 2016, that's what physicians do. That's what parents do.

New cures, treatments and immunizations continue to wipe out preventable diseases -- when we let them.

Let's not turn back the clock on Michigan children's health. We hope lawmakers will reject HBs 5126 and 5127.