Hello all,
Here's some sad, but inevitable news.
Whooping cough, aka pertussis, is a highly contagious disease.
A vaccine was developed for it in the 1940s - the disease became totally controlled.
Recently, the number of parents who voluntarily rejected having their babies vaccinated rose to 2%in California.
In 2010, an outbreak of whooping cough affected 9,120 people.
Babies are exceptionally vulnerable to this disease - from this outbreak we have 10 dead babies from this outbreak.
The latest issue of the medical journal Pediatrics, has published this review.
Why are parents voluntarily rejecting vaccinations?
Ignorance?
Doubtful - 9 of the 10 families who lost their child are college-educated!
Seems like the headlines stemming from the junk science, which claims that vaccinations cause autism and therefore should be avoided (hello Jenny McCarthy!) are likely to blame.
Amazing.
Til next time,
Kevin
I will admit that I have some reservations about vaccines; some of the "safe" and "beneficial" things we allow "experts" to inject into our bodies have proven to be anything but — thalidomide would be one of the more obvious examples, but beware of the innocuous aspirin as well! There are plenty of examples. Remember, George Washington was bled to death by the nation's top physician, who "knew" that would save his life. A consulting doctor argued for a tracheotomy, which likely would have saved Washington's life, but he was ignored. The "experts" always know best!
ReplyDeleteBut overall, I think we need to rely more heavily on common sense these days. A whooping cough vaccine that was essentially perfected about 70 years ago has a pretty well-established history worthy of trust. But common sense is often in short supply. Maybe we need a vaccine for that affliction…
On a more personally local front, a young boy and girl who are friends of my children were both diagnosed with whooping cough last week. Both DID receive the normally scheduled vaccines and contracted the illness anyway. A letter was sent home to all the parents of children in their school alerting everyone to the matter. So far, they are an isolated case and are physically doing fine. Thank goodness!