>>I have no strong opinion/explanation on "what the heck happened" since 2000.
Right, because the MSM is focused on partisan conspiracy theories.
FWIW there's also an outbreak in Berlin. The Germans have a 97% vaccination rate amongst 1-year-olds compared to your 91%, so lets see what they come up with- especially since half of their new cases are adults. IMHO it'll boil down to herd immunity, sloppy adherence to vaccination schedules and other consequences when people think it's not such a big deal. FWIW they eradicated smallpox because everybody cooperated. These days an ex-Dallas Cowboys cheerleader would start an anti-Smallpox eradication movement, insisting that Smallpox is an invention of big pharma and doctors to line their coffers and/or blaming Obama.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
