Facts, not Fantasy

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Whooping cough now an epidemic in California

I hope Jenny McCarthy is proud of herself, and plans to attend every single infant funeral she has caused...  And yes, a lot comes from the fact that California has a lot of poor and uneducated immigrants, but without Jenny's foothold in the anti-vax movement, there would be less likelihood for the weakening of the herd immunity.

Whooping cough now an epidemic in California



According to a statement just released by the California Department of Public Health, pertussis — whooping cough — is now officially an epidemic in California.
That’s right: an almost completely preventable disease is coming back with a roar in California. There have been well over 900 cases of pertussis in that state this year, over four times as many as this time last year (and 600 more suspected cases are being investigated). If this keeps up, California may see more cases in 2010 than it has in 50 years.
If that doesn’t anger and sicken you enough, then this most assuredly will: there have been five deaths this year from pertussis as well, all babies under three months of age.

Infants aren’t fully protected against pertussis until they have completed the first schedule of vaccinations, when they reach 6 months. Before then, they are vulnerable to the disease. The most likely reservoir for the bacterium? Unvaccinated people, including other children. If too many people go unvaccinated, the disease can find a host and survive long enough to infect others. If enough people are vaccinated, that chance drops. This effect is called herd immunity, and it’s the only thing that can keep this highly contagious and potentially fatal disease away from infants.
As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle:
There is no shortage of vaccines, which are provided for free to hospitals and participating counties by the state health department.
Emphasis mine. So why aren’t people getting vaccinated?
Of course, some people cannot be vaccinated due to allergies or other medical reasons. And it’s too early to say for sure if the antivax movement is behind this… but their shoulders have plenty of room for blame. We know for a fact that in Sydney Australia, where the antivax movement was quite strong in recent years, pertussis gained strength, and several babies died, including Dana McCaffery. She was four weeks old when pertussis took her.
Four weeks.
Meryl Dorey, the head of the now-happily-defunct Australian Vaccination Network — a fringe but vocal vaccine denialist group — said all sorts of horrid things about vaccinations, all of which were incorrect. She distorted the truth, ignored evidence, and used every means at her disposal to terrify parents into not vaccinating.
Jenny McCarthy and the recently-disgraced Andrew Wakefield are also vocally spreading false information about vaccines. The result is that they are aggressively giving diseases like pertussis, measles, rubella, and even polio a chance to come back.
Vaccines work. They are one of the greatest medical inventions of all time. They have saved hundreds of millions of lives. They are inexpensive, easy to get, and may save not just your life and the lives of your children, but also those of children you’ve never even met.
This is America, this is the 21st century, and people are still dying of pertussis. It’s shameful, it’s unnecessary, and it’s completely preventable.

Monday, June 07, 2010

Come on! Whay to be irresponsible W.H.O.

So I just came accross some reports about the W.H.O. supposedly being tied to companies that made money off the N1H1 vaccines...  I can barely contain my anger and frustration at reading this.  Not because it's particualrly surprising, or that it's an incredibly irresponsible thing to do.  But because it is just more ammo for the deluded liars who will point to this as some sort of vindicating fact that nothing about vaccines can be trusted.  They will totally ignore the FACT that ZERO cases of autism have been linked to vaccines.  Or that vaccines are STILL safer than the disease they protect against.

This is an ethical failing.  It is not in any way  a medical failing.  Science is still being vindicated day in and day out about the safety and efficiency of vaccines.  Sadly, beurocratic douchebags will do their best to besmirch that reputation, and lying, deceitful loonies will take advantage of it, and build giant 100 foot strawmen out of this.

Friday, June 04, 2010

In 2005, pertussis killed eight California infants.

The actual title for this article is below, but I titled it from one small sentence out of the article.  It's not so much that the disease is on the rise that is so horrible, but that people are DYING from it.  The disease is easy to prevent.  Simple vaccinations that impart herd immunity.  We can stop it.

Sadly, it seems modern medicine didn't take into account our own stupidity and incredulity.  That people are getting whooping cough is not good, and it's sad, but the DEATHS of people (infants in particular) that are totally preventable are why I started this site.  Those names should be at the Jenny McCarthy Bodycount site as well.

Whooping cough cases soar in Marin and state


Marin County health officials say the number of whooping cough cases reported so far this year is already three times greater than the number of cases reported during all of 2009.

Dr. Anju Goel, Marin deputy public health officer, said 58 cases of whooping cough, a highly contagious respiratory tract infection also known as pertussis, were reported in Marin from Jan. 1 to May 17, compared with just 19 during 2009.

The higher Marin numbers reflect a statewide phenomenon. According to the California Department of Public Health, 346 pertussis cases were reported in California from Jan. 1 to April 30, up from 129 cases during the same period last year.

Statewide, four newborns have died from whooping cough – two in Los Angeles County and two in the Central Valley. State health officials say pertussis cases tend to be cyclical, with a rise in the number of cases every two to five years followed by a decline.

“The last big outbreak of pertussis cases was in 2005,” said Ken August, a state Department of Public Health spokesman. “So we’re concerned we could be in for another tough year.”

In 2005, pertussis killed eight California infants.

Infants, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems are most at risk. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than half of infants less than 1 year old who get the disease must be hospitalized. About one in 10 children with pertussis get pneumonia, and about one in 250 people who become infected develop a brain disorder called encephalopathy. The disease causes an estimated 10 to 20 deaths each year in the United States.

In Marin, the Ross Valley School District’s five campuses in San Anselmo and Fairfax are being hit the hardest.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT CONTRACOSTATIMES