The epidemic of whooping cough that already has infected more than 900 people in California and killed at least five infants appears to be spreading into Oregon.
The Medford Mail Tribune reported yesterday that Jackson County has recorded 23 cases of the disease so far this year – roughly four times the usual number for this far into the year.
“The cases confirmed in lab testing have hit patients ranging from 2 months old to 55 years old,” the Mail Trib wrote. “Studies have shown that a relatively small fraction of cases are diagnosed and confirmed, so more people in the county likely have been infected, officials said.”
California declared a whooping cough epidemic Wednesday after health officials noticed a sharp spike in cases, mostly among Latinos. “All told, 910 cases have been confirmed, with several hundred more under investigation,” the New York Times wrote. “If the pace keeps up, the outbreak could be the largest in the state in 50 years, the California Department of Public Health reported.”
Whooping cough, or pertussis, is an infection of the respiratory system that starts out like a common cold. But after a week or two the symptoms get worse and the victim develops a severe cough and the characteristic “whooping” breathing sound that gives the disease its name. Whooping cough is especially dangerous for infants, elderly adults and people whose immune systems are weakened.
Because the disease is highly contagious and modern society is so mobile, health officials throughout the nation are watching the California situation with concern.
The tragedy in all this is that whooping cough can easily be prevented by vaccination – but for a variety of reasons, including the loony anti-vaccination movement, many parents are failing to get their kids vaccinated.
“Officials are still investigating the causes of the [California] outbreak, but some have already suggested that the anti-vaccine movement could be at least partly to blame,” writes Mother Jones magazine, noting that California is the “epicenter” of the anti-vaccination movement.
Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the British physician whose 1998 “research” purporting to show a connection between vaccination and autism started the anti-vaccine hysteria, has been thoroughly discredited and in May was stripped of his license to practice medicine. But the quackery he peddled still finds plenty of eager buyers.
The persistent belief that vaccination causes autism seems to rest on the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy – the assumption that because B came after A, A must have caused B. “Some children who were vaccinated were later diagnosed as autistic; therefore, vaccination causes autism” goes the thinking, ignoring the fact that no causal mechanism between vaccination and autism has been shown – not to mention that millions of kids get vaccinated and DON’T become autistic.
“Fears about vaccines are nothing new, but they’ve been revived in recent years by anti-vaccine crusaders who’ve junked science in favor of medical myths and conspiracy theories,” Mother Jones observes. “In the US and abroad, they’ve popularized the notion that vaccines cause autism and that whooping cough is not actually fatal, among other falsehoods. There’s also the tireless conservative argument — promulgated by folks like the Eagle Forum’s Phyllis Schlafly — that government-required vaccines infringe upon individual liberty.”
It’s funny how the wackos of the extreme left and the extreme right find common ground in the belief that government is a vast, evil conspiracy dedicated to robbing them of their rights, their property, their health and their lives.
This article appears in Jun 24-30, 2010.
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Get the vaccine. If you can pay for it. The rest-a-yous can just drop dead. That’s how we do health care in the Land of Opportunity, sucka!
Whooping cough vaccine is usually given as part of the DPT (diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus) vaccination. I could be mistaken but I believe low-income parents can get their children vaccinated under the Oregon Health Plan.
Free vacinations are available through the “Shots for Tots” program. Contact your local rotary club or Deschutes county health Dept.
HBM: I’m with you on this. How dare a parent put others at risk by not getting their children vaccinated. Infants are particularly at risk since, as I understand it, they can’t be vaccinated until they reach a certain age. An older, vaccinated sibling could bring the virus home from school from an unvaccinated child thus endangering the infant.
However, my real question is how do you end up using the kook (OK, I’ll rephrase as “fringe”) left wing rag, Mother Jones, as a source. I realize that the idea for your blog subject may be the result of the MJ article, but I would think you would then be also citing/quoting opinions from medical journals/publications. Kind of like using the Daily Kos, as you did recently, to explain the nuances of polling and the underlying statistics. Sorry, I don’t get it.
MJ’s attempt to spread the anti-vaccination debate as a “tireless conservative argument” (which would actually be Libertarian) by citing Phyllis Schlafly as a pertinent conservative voice clearly overstates her current relevance. I didn’t even think she was still alive.
The MJ article went on to say (which you did not cite) that Boulder has a high and the highest incident rate in Colorado. Last time I checked, Boulder was regarded as the Berkeley of Colorado, hardly a conservative demographic. Coupled with the Latino data from California cited by MJ, this looks to be anything but a conservative issue.
It is a public health issue.
The problem is that greater than 99% of the people getting it are properly vaccinated. You get the shot 5 times before age 5. The vaccine is not working! What do they want us to do, get a shot every year?
Critic: The fact that you don’t share the ideological bias of a publication or other news source doesn’t mean that everything it reports is suspect. Even Fox News gets something right sometimes. ;^)
“I didn’t even think she [Phyllis Schlafly] was still alive.”
Very much alive and kicking at 85.
“Last time I checked, Boulder was regarded as the Berkeley of Colorado, hardly a conservative demographic. Coupled with the Latino data from California cited by MJ, this looks to be anything but a conservative issue.”
As I said, the anti-vaccination crusade is where the far left and far right find common ground. They both believe the gummint is engaged in an evil conspiracy against them.
The high incidence among Latinos in CA, I suspect, has to do with poverty, lack of information and lack of access to health care.
Hilary – you may not know much about the evils of vaccinations, how they really harm our innocent children, and how big pharm reaps a huge financial benefit. Believe me, the medical profession is NOT looking out for the safety of our children, but they are looking at their own pocket book. Please – DO NOT vaccinate your innocent children.
BTW, the original inspiration for the post came not from MJ but from The Oregonian, which had a bit this morning about whooping cough cases being way up in Jackson County.
In all the states I have lived in, alaska, alabama and nevada, I was able to get all my childrens shots for free at the public health clinic…there is no excuse not to get your children vaccinated other than ignorance of the community you live in. Also, we are so lucky now, that we don’t have first hand experience of these awful childhood diseases so I think people don’t understand the dangerous game they are playing with the lives of their children. All it takes is a couple of hours at the free clinic…a few hours now is better than a coffin later.
Pertussis immunity doesn’t last more than 5 years or so. We only vaccinate children for pertussis until 5 years old. After that, the vaccine-induced immunity wanes. That is how pertussis spreads–it’s actually not uncommon in older populations, who spread it to younger populations like babies who are not yet vaccinated. If you are so worried about the unvaccinated loonies, why don’t you go get vaccinated, since adults are most likely the ones who are spreading it. Furthermore, check out the paper on the increased risk of asthma in babies who get the DtAP before age 4 months–their risk of asthma later in life was double. Btw, whooping cough is rarely fatal to anyone under the age of 2-3 months. Only 5 infants have died in the current outbreak out of a couple of thousand reported, probably more. Not that any deaths are desirable, but it is hardly an incredibly deadly disease. Most people who get pertussis do not die or even get particularly sick.
I am a mother of 3, that have vaccinated my 2 of my 3 children against the whooping cough. The 2 that were vaccinated just got results back this week, and have pertussis. How can they have had the vaccines, at the correct times, and now have it? I know it only lasts a few years, but my children are 5 & 12, and should supposedly be protected as of now. So, all this nonsense about vaccinate your children…..Doesn’t seem to do the trick either. And, I live in Texas, nowhere near CA or OR.
F you people that tell me I have to get my daughter vaccinated. If your vaccines work so well you should not be worrying about the un vaccinated! The day anyone tries to force anyone in the country to put something in their body that they do not want will be the begining of the end! Smoking kills 5 million people a year and yet you are complaining about a few deaths from whooping cough F YOU!!!!
“Believe me, the medical profession is NOT looking out for the safety of our children, but they are looking at their own pocket book. Please – DO NOT vaccinate your innocent children.”
Uhhh … if all the medical profession cared about was making money, wouldn’t it make more money from treating children with whooping cough than from vaccinating them against whooping cough? Just sayin’ …
NS: “If your vaccines work so well you should not be worrying about the un vaccinated!”
The brilliant logic of that statement leaves me speechless.
My, my NS. “Smoking kills 5 million people a year…blah, blah , blah.” Since the subject matter dealt with the US, your remark can only be taken in that context.
Let’s do some math.
Using your 5 million annual deaths from smoking and a popualtion of 320 million, that means the population turns over every 64 years, not quite the average age of men and women today. By your reckoning, this means that everyone dies from Smoking. Yeah right.
I feel sorry for your daughter. Hope she’s not home schooled although I can only imagine the breadth of vocabulary she would learn from you.
All well and good, unless of course you have a child who suffered ‘pertussis vaccine encephalopathy’
“All well and good, unless of course you have a child who suffered ‘pertussis vaccine encephalopathy'”
“Vaccination of children against pertussis has succeeded in preventing thousands of cases of mental retardation and death during the past 40 years. But the pertussis vaccine, now given in the form of a combined, diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine, has been wrongly blamed during the past decade for causing brain damage. Three recent research studies, which combined involved 230,000 children and 713,000 immunizations, have demonstrated that the pertussis vaccine causes no permanent neurological damage. Another ongoing study has failed to implicate the pertussis vaccine in causing any form of encephalopathy (brain dysfunction). It is important that the phenomenon of ‘pertussis vaccine encephalopathy’ be recognized as a myth.” — JAMA, 1990
There is research indicating that pertussis vaccination can hasten the onset of Dravet syndrome, a very rare form of epilepsy that appears among children who have a genetic mutation; however, the research also shows that the severity of the syndrome is not affected by vaccination.
“If you are so worried about the unvaccinated loonies, why don’t you go get vaccinated, since adults are most likely the ones who are spreading it.”
Actually, California is recommending that people who care for young children get a pertussis vaccination.
No data supporting the fact that whooping cough is coming back due to parents not having their children vaccinated. It is just as likely that bad batches of the inoculations are the culprit – just as likely is the possibility that whooping cough has morphed to a slightly different strain/bacteria. I don’t know how the hate mongers managed to create such an unscientific scenario while wanting to show how very scientific and superior they are? All this supposition is stupidity by the media and sheeple involved. Great job parroting non truths everyone. Where is the data to support the blame game that is going on here? Simply put there is no significant data.
“anti vaccine wackos”
I know you are but what am I?
The former problem with vaccines came from the use of thimerosol as a preservative. Thimerosol is a mercury compound. Although the amount of mercury in any one vaccination was minute, as the number and frequency of vaccinations has ballooned over the years, cumulative mercury levels in children rose. There is no “safe” level of mercury, and there are studies that associate a higher incidences of a variety of diseases with mercury accumulation. Mercury “poisoning” even at low levels is particularly associated with higher incidences of neurological diseases such as autism. Due to the risks of liability, manufacturers of vaccines have largely stopped using thimerosol as a preservative in the US, though it may still be used in third world countries. While the studies of the single vaccines do not indicate a scientific correlation between the one minute dose of mercury in a given vaccine and any disease, the cumulative effects are not known.
Mercury in dental work is believed by some to be associated with dementia and other neurological disorders of the elderly. The theory is that gold and silver dental fillings are about 50% mercury. The highly volatile mercury continually evaporates out of the fillings providing a more or less constant dose of toxic fumes to the owner through breathing the mercury fumes and from ingesting mercury-bearing saliva.
The case against dental mercury is burgeoning and may soon lead to lawsuits against the ADA and dentists who still use mercury amalgam fillings. Some dentists specialize in removing the “toxic tooth” fillings, and more and more dentists are recommending mercury-free alternatives for fillings. Several studies of dental assistants and dental hygienists, who are predominantly women of child-bearing age, alleges that the incidence of birth defects in their test group is double the rate in the general population. Again, the predominant birth defects supposedly associated with the mercury exposure in dental offices are neurological. The dentists are not immune either, as the health-related retirement age of dentists is about 5 years less than that of other professionals such as doctors. Studies of mercury vapor levels in dentist offices claim that a significant percentage of the offices exceed Federal air quality standards for mercury vapor and are an unsafe workplace.
Mercury exposure and accumulation as a consequence of the industrialized world is a growing concern. Seafood, especially species near the top of the food chain, is already a problematic source of mercury for humans. Some experts claim that canned tuna or any sea-run fresh fish should not be consumed more than once a week due to mercury levels. As mercury levels continue to rise in ocean fish, some say that children should not eat seafood at all. Given the widespread mercury exposure we all face, the vaccine issue may be a small component. Mercury fillings are a far more likely source of mercury poisoning effects.
Mercury stubbornly accumulates in the human body, especially in nerve tissues, and is not easily removed. So, once dosed, mercury is the poison that just keeps on giving. In summary, there may be some legitimacy to the vaccine issues in the past, but the allegations are much less credible now as mercury usage in vaccines largely has ended in this country. Nevertheless, if I were getting vaccinations for my children, I would check that the vaccine is not preserved with a mercury compound.
vaccines are horrible and a crude excuse for science. if you want to eat up mainstream bullshit, that’s fine, but dont blame non vaccinators when your kids get sick. the vaccine can’t even prevent infection. do your research.
The trouble with trying to prove vaccine-related injury is that most doctors are loathe to report vaccine reactions. Everything is explained away as coincidence. Whether it is or it isn’t, I’ve always though the CDC should determine, but unfortunately, the numbers never get there. So I’m not too impressed with quoting studies that determine vaccine damage. Frankly, there is little evidence of long-term vaccine safety–the studies simply aren’t there– and far more concerning neurological data about vaccines coming out in dribs and drabs.
I just read a pubmed article on this–if you actually get pertussis, on average, your immunity lasts from 4-20 years. Vaccine acquired immunity lasts 4-12 years (supposing that, unlike the children of the lady in Texas who posted above, the vaccine actually worked at all). Do some research, folks. Vaccines are NOT all they are cracked up to be. In fact, many of the diseases that vaccinations are supposed to have saved us from had mostly gone away BEFORE the vaccines were invented. In many cases, the true saviors were soap, clean water, and indoor plumbing. Typhus, typhoid, cholera, diphtheria, even polio–all diseases of poor santitation, not scourges from which we were rescued by vaccines.
Please folks, read the inserts…talk to a doctor who understands how the vaccine works. The pertussis vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission of the disease. it protects the vaccinated against the side-effects of the bacteria, not the bacteria itself. Pertussis is endemic and always will be. the ‘do it for, sophie’ campaign is a lie. adults and teens carry and transmit this bug all the time, but symptoms are mild, so they may not know they are carrying it. adults/teens being vaccinated only further masks those symptoms and makes them less likely to realize they are carriers.
Of course Bruce…diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine, has been wrongly blamed during the past decade for causing brain damage…and mass injections of http://www.sciencelab.com/xMSDS-Thimerosal-9925236 http://www.whale.to/vaccines/thimerosal_infants.jpg causes no permanent neurological damage either. No child has EVER been damaged by a vaccine.
You need to get your facts straight and actually do some research. I can understand when just hearing about people not getting children vaccinated can sound crazy, and maybe sometimes it is, but there are so many evil things about vaccination and over-medicating kids that if you’re just taking what the government says as facts then you are extremely mislead and naive and you’re gonna jeopardize yourself and your family. Look at the research. It’s not the vaccinations themselves that are linked to Autism, but the thimerosal (mercury) that is used in many vaccines. You discredited one person over this when there are hundreds, if not thousands, of studies done to verify the facts. The fact is that big pharma gets rich off vaccinations and drugging our children and I feel sorry for you if you can’t at least recognize that. Furthermore, because they (big pharma and the government) are so adamant about not removing thimerosal from vaccines (which i might add, saves them millions) at least until more studies can be ran, raises a red flag for me. And if you so much as care about your own children you would stop letting them tell you what to think and check for yourself! You owe it to the world and to our generation and to our kids to know ALL the facts before believing the propaganda of society and spreading its lies. I implore you to do some real research first and when you find out the truth, write articles about how we can better our lives and save our children’s!!!
Well, a very biasted article. I hope you arent so close minded and uneducated about other things going on this world? Most of your information is incorrect.
“not to mention that millions of kids get vaccinated and DON'T become autistic.”
of course millions of children do not get whooping couch.
“Typhus, typhoid, cholera, diphtheria, even polio–all diseases of poor santitation, not scourges from which we were rescued by vaccines.”
I agree with the saying that during the course of history plumbers have saved more lives than doctors, but you’re 100 percent wrong about polio — it was not caused by poor sanitation. I’m old enough to remember the era before polio vaccine. I remember my middle-class parents living in dread every time the summer “polio season” came around. I remember public swimming pools being closed because of polio outbreaks. My wife and I both had friends who were crippled by polio.
I’m damn glad that the vaccine came along before we got polio, and that I never had to worry about my daughter getting it. And if you have children and you’re not getting them vaccinated because of pseudo-scientific hysteria and irrational fears of Big Pharma / Big Gummint conspiracies, I hope you never have cause to be sorry for it.
HB–
You’re right. As a society, we have lost the memory of the epidemics that swept us in the days before vaccinations. I remember the polio summers, too, and have a cousin who contracted it a year or two before the vaccines became available. Smallpox has just about disappeared entirely. Millions live and survive because of vaccinations.
I also agree that a lack of scientific knowledge, method, and understanding leads people to adopt beliefs and points of view that many of the posters above demonstrate. The anti-vaccination crowd has the luxury of ignoring good science and medicine because of sanitation and the vaccination of the ever-dwindling majority of our citizens. It will come full circle. The whooping cough epidemic is the tip of the iceberg.
There is no denying that there are rare and unfortunate incidents involving vaccinations . The hiss of the iron lung as I grew up makes them pale by comparison.
Stephen: Well said. I have heard seemingly intelligent people claim that measles isn’t a serious disease and there’s no need to vaccinate against it. Tell that to the parents of two kids who were in my fourth grade class when we had a measles outbreak, one of whom died and the other of whom ended up with permanent brain damage.
Those who do not remember the past — or refuse to remember it — are doomed to repeat it.
how do you know if your child has it whooping cough!!!!!!!