So the U.S. is currently facing its worst whooping cough epidemic in over 50 years, and while I'm disturbed, I'm not particularly surprised. Whooping cough was the reason why I made the decision to get my daughter vaccinated 11 years ago. The vaccination debate was just hitting red-hot status back then, and I wasn't sure what to do when Charlotte was born.
On the one hand, as someone with more faith in natural and alternative approaches to health than traditional medicine, I was inclined to think maybe there was some truth to the autism/vaccine connection. On the other hand, as a new mom in a big city (Manhattan) who never wanted her baby to get sick, ever, I was inclined to innoculate against everything possible.
So I asked my pediatrician at the time (Dr. Marie Sanford, she was amazing!) to level with me: Which was the riskier choice?
I will never forget what she told me.
"Look, I'm not discounting the research about vaccines or saying there are absolutely no side effects, but I've never seen any child develop problems firsthand," she said.
"What I DO see, every year, are kids coming into the emergency room with whooping cough. And it's not pretty. In the U.S., we think of whooping cough as a disease that's been largely eradicated. But that's not true in other parts of the world, so ... especially in an international city like this ... it's conceivable that your baby could be exposed."
That was all I needed to hear. And now, over a decade later, Dr. Sanford's words seem almost prophetic. I'm not pointing fingers at specific parents or saying the anti-vax movement directly caused the whooping cough epidemic but there is definitely (obviously) a connection. The effectiveness of the whooping cough vaccine relies on what's called “herd immunity," meaning that "If enough people are immune to the bacteria, then even if someone gets sick, the disease cannot easily spread through the community. This is especially true for very young infants, who are too young to be vaccinated and whose immune systems are not yet strong enough to defeat the bacteria on their own."
I guess personal choices can affect public health after all.
What do you think is behind the whooping cough epidemic?
Image via edenpictures/Flickr
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Comments 119
Well...vaccines are bad. I read it on the internet so it must be true -- they arent allowed to put anything thats not true on the internet. I think the website was vaccinesarebadbecauseIsaidso.com Check it out. **eye roll **
that "aborted fetus material" is an old wives tale, from the 60s.
I love how scare tactics are used from both sides of the vax/no vax debate.
Eh...it's not really an old wive's tale. There is truth to it. They use human cells to grow the virus for the vaccine and those human cells come from 2 cell lines that keep reproducing themselves. These 2 cell lines come from the cells of 2 abortions in the 60's. You can even find out the reasons for the abortions and where they come from. So, no they're not using fetal tissue or cells from abortions being performed today, but there is truth to that statement. Enough truth that I think it's reasonable for people, especially pro-lifers, to be opposed to it for those reasons.
But some idiots decide to chose to believe the rocket scientist Jenny McCarthy... More like a head case!
And clearly some idiots choose to believe that those who are anti-vax have those beliefs because of Jenny McCarthy. Find something new.
My Goodness people.... Seriously?
Do you STILL think the vaccination debate is still all about Autism?????? Wake the hell up people it isn't about FRACKING AUTISM...
Screw the Wakefield Hypothesis.....(a HYPOTHESIS...not a study... )
It was NOT a study... it was an observation... a hypothesis and it didn't connect MMR to Autism... it hypothesized that it was linked in some way to COLITIS a FRACKING bowel disorder that gave 12 of his pediatric patients severe and chronic cases of diarrhea... and while y'all are at it... screw Jenny McCarthy too... She's an idiot... an attention wh0re.
This isn't about them it isn't about Autism. If you are going to even ATTEMPT to enter this controversial debate... at least educate yourselves about what the REAL objection is to vaccines.
It isn't the non-vaxers screaming Jenny McCarthy and Wakefield... it's the PRO-Vaxers who take a couple names from 10+ YEARS ago and think they know everything there is to know about WHY we choose to not vax our children today. YES... Autism *IS* a concern... but it isn't about that...
It's about the fact that there is NO WAY to test our babies for sensitivities to the chemicals found in the different vaccines. MOST babies will be ok... but how do you know that *YOUR* baby is included in "MOST"? How do you know that *YOUR* baby isn't the 1 in a million or 1 in a thousand or 1 in a hundred... that will react badly or even die.
It's about the man-made, extremely toxic, chemical cocktails that are contained within those syringes. It's about known carcinogenic and mutagenic compounds being injected into the bodies of babies whose bodies have never even been given the opportunity to fight off the common cold... and aren't even 24 hours old before they begin injecting them with chemicals like formaldehyde (they begin preserving our babies for death before they've even had a single day of life), Polysorbate 80 (an insecticide that works by rendering insects sterile), 3 different types of Aluminum salts (neurotoxic chemical that has been linked to Alzheimer's, and other neurological disorders and injuries).
That's JUST ONE SINGLE VACCINE...
It's about the fact that by the time an infant is 6 months old they receive no less than 18 - 19 injections of 7 different vaccines containing up to 14 different antigens (strains) of disease. And this all before baby has even had the opportunity to fight off a common cold.
If you were going to begin a weight lifting regimen... would you start out lifting 5 pounds??? or 500 pounds?
Seriously think about that for a minute....
If you went to college to become a surgeon... would they put you in the OR on day , give you a scalpel and tell you "Go to it!"..... or would they teach you how to wash your hands and put on a gown, gloves, cap, and mask first?
If you decided to run a marathon, would you go out the day before and buy a new pair of shoes and running clothes and consider yourself ready? Or would you train for months before hand and develop your endurance a mile at a time?
I think you missed your 'shot' today, mustbeGRACE.
Then why do we expect our babies to hit the ground running... fighting off a dozen diseases and several dozen doses of toxic chemicals all at once... before we even give them a chance to sneeze?
It is NOT about FRACKING AUTISM... it's about so much MORE than that!
BTW... if a mother is breastfeeding her baby and is taking in proper amounts of Vitamin C and other PROPER nutrition.... guess what... the likelihood of her baby contracting (let alone dying) from Pertussis is almost nil.
Now... I am NOT telling ANYONE that they MUST breastfeed or stop vaxing... as with all things it is a choice every parent has to choose between... but do NOT THINK that *YOUR* choice is right for EVERYONE ELSE.
*YOU* make *YOUR* choice for *YOUR* family... and the rest of us will make *OUR* choice for *OUR* families... and let's ALL give each other the respect we *ALL* deserve for *LOVING* our children enough to make the best possible decisions we can for each of our *OWN* based upon the knowledge we have individually.
hmm as a mother who use to vax and now doesnt i can tell their are more complications to vaxing then there are to not vaxing. Morons who vax with out actually studying or doing research on what they are injecting their child with deserve the repercussions. To many parents walk in the door of their doctors office accept the shots and dont even know whats in them. Thats the problem that i have. If your to stupid to do the research and just take some paid coronies word for it then you deserve what ever out come you get. Now if you want to be educated and then make your choice more power to you. As a mother with a daughter with autism i can tell you, you dont know the hell that these kids go through and will go through for the rest of their lives. So you can either shut up or maybe spend a day taking care of a child that needs constant attention so that a mother or father can get a break.