Comments on: Pertussis can kill, and you can help stop it

By: Pertussis – Whooping cough «

Pertussis – Whooping cough « — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:01:20 +0000

[...] Pertussis can kill, and you can help stop it (blogs.discovermagazine.com) [...]

By: “Pertussis Can Kill And You Can Help Stop It” | VICNetwork

“Pertussis Can Kill And You Can Help Stop It” | VICNetwork — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 18:39:19 +0000

[...] here for the Bad Astronomy blog post that originally featured the video in mid June. This entry was posted in VICNetwork [...]

By: HSQ

HSQ — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:29:11 +0000

I had pertussis as an adult. I spent two nights in and out of the ER before my primary care doc heard me cough (from 100 yards away) and figured it out. I spent over ten work weeks out of the office, worried my whole family sick, and spent thousands of dollars on doctor visits (not including the cracked rib). All because I didn’t get a booster shot that would have cost me no more than $35… GET THE SHOT!

By: Ron Lopp

Ron Lopp — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 20:13:06 +0000

Last year more than 9,000 pertussis cases were reported in California, the most cases reported in 63 years. Disease activity remains high in 2011 with more than 1,100 whooping cough cases reported to public health officials.

The California Medical Association (CMA) and CMA Foundation have produced TV public service spots, in English and Spanish, to educate parents and their adolescent children about the new requirement to be vaccinated for pertussis before starting 7th through 12th grades. The TV spots can be viewed by going to http://cal.md/psa-tdap. Ron Lopp, CMA, rlopp@cmanet.org

By: flip

flip — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 05:00:42 +0000

#88, msjetbn

Just wanted to say you have my sympathies. I’m experiencing pretty much the same as you (only it turns out, I don’t have pertussis at all) and I can comprehend just how awful you must have felt.

When I get better, the first thing I’m doing is getting booster shots for everything. I’d hate to treat my underlying problem only to get pertussis later and deal with the coughing/wheezing/inability to breath all over again.

Hope you are feeling much better now!

By: msjetbn

msjetbn — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 22:17:02 +0000

Last year at about this time, my husband was just getting over a bout of pertussis. I had somehow contracted pertussis before him. Neither of us, both being in news and very well-informed on health issues, had a clue that we needed a booster. I was 56 and he was 63 at the time. I thought I was coming down with my first big cold in many years. Yes, I have been cold-free since 2002, probably because I had immunity from experiencing all 200 viruses that make up rhinovirus. I work at home and, due to financial constraints, minimize my public contact. Who wants to go out if you can’t spend anything at all? At a meeting with my publisher, I continued to feel worse. After seeing my doctor, I was placed on a breathing machine three times a day for three weeks in addition to several other asthma-type medications. I refused to be hospitalized. I was sick like I had never before been sick. I could not easily move from one chair to another. I could not stop coughing and eventuallymy chest muscles caused extreme pain every time I coughed. It was like that for 6 weeks and took several more weeks to get back to speed. My husband came down with the identical symptoms during my final week, although he didn’t have as much trouble breathing. For the first time in his life, he missed 3 entire weeks of work. This was never reported to health officials by our doctor so our dalliance with pertussis went unreported, as I suspect many other cases were also left unreported. Thank goodness we figured out early in my illness that it was something very bad and we should remain in quarantine as much as possible. Certainly nowhere near infants or sick people. We were completely blindsided by this and it was before all of the reports of pertussis had been released to the media. Please, please understand the value of vaccines. Please do what is right not only for your family but for innocent folks who might be standing in line at the grocery store with you. Or who may be sitting at the table next to you in a restaurant. Or are on a flight with you. We are always walking the razor’s edge of some new pandemic. Don’t let it be a preventable infectious disease.

By: Phillip Helbig

Phillip Helbig — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 20:55:26 +0000

Maybe some strong rhetoric is called for. Would it be too much to suggest that those who oppose mandatory vaccination are aiding and abetting murder?

By: Wayne on the Plains

Wayne on the Plains — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:27:21 +0000

My daughter was born two weeks before Dana McCaffrey, just thinking about all they’ve missed in the last 2+ years breaks my heart. I certainly understand why they are taking no chances with their youngest.

By: Vaccine on 60 Minutes, Australia | Tangled Up in Blue Guy

Vaccine on 60 Minutes, Australia | Tangled Up in Blue Guy — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:04:44 +0000

[...] Pertussis can kill, and you can help stop it (blogs.discovermagazine.com) [...]

By: Al Morrison

Al Morrison — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 02:28:31 +0000

Thanks for posting this Phil.

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 22:45:37 +0000

@79. Dave :

You mean this :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swDpWNKB5Co

one?

By: Todd W.

Todd W. — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 18:38:39 +0000

@Zoey

In addition to what Chemmomo said, there are some diseases that the best sanitation or nutrition in the world won’t do one jot to prevent. These are largely respiratory illnesses, like pertussis, measles, rubella, influenza, etc.

By: Chemmomo

Chemmomo — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 17:39:57 +0000

@Zoey #77
Here’s a resource for you from the CDC addressing what would happen if we stop vaccinating:

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/whatifstop.htm

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 14:26:21 +0000

,,,and here we have evidence that, in fact, humans are about as smart as we can get. I suppose it would help if ALL humans could be as smart as possible, rather than spread all across the bell curve however, even the most powerful computer ever built is just a useless pile of metal if the programming is sloppy.

Teaching people how to think is a thankless task,,,literally, since governing is easiest if the sheep don’t know they’re in for a good shearing and I have observed politicians are pretty darn lazy. Sound bites are easy. Thinking is hard.

Gary 7

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 13:35:02 +0000

Look up ‘homeopathic medicine futurama’ on youtube. It sums up why I can’t help but laugh (in despair) when I see Scheibner say she has a doctorate in Natural Sciences as if it means something. Yep, and I’m a professor of Fartology and Donutessenology from the University of My House.

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 05:59:45 +0000

@37. Keith Bowden :

I’ve come to realize that I visit Bad Astronomy not just for Phil but to look for MTU’s comments. Cheers!

Aw, shucks! [Blushes, feels head swelling.] Thankyou Keith. Much appreciated.

@36. Todd W. :

@Messier Tidy Upper …[SNIP] … Except that high infant mortality would most likely have the opposite effect. People would be more likely to have more kids, since they would be counting on losing at least one or two. That’s part of the problem in many poorer countries, and what Bill Gates was talking about when he said that vaccines would help with overpopulation (meaning that lower child mortality would mean people don’t need to have as many kids, not some eugenics program).
[Emphasis original but shifted emphasising method for clarity.]

Good point – there is that. So, yeah, even that gallows humour “benefit” is gone.

By: Zoey

Zoey — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 04:29:47 +0000

Among the things I’ve heard antivaxers claim is that more people die of reactions to the vaccines than would die if everyone just went unvaccinated, because the elimination of these diseases is correlated mainly with the improvements in public sanitation and nutrition over the last century. Sure, it’s easier to point out the biggest whackjobs for what they are, but it might be helpful to address the claims that might sound vaguely plausible to people with no background in epidemiology. (I’ll cop to not having done much in the way of homework on how tenuous this particular claim’s connection is to reality, but judging from the recent outbreaks, it’s probably complete crap – and in general I’m skeptical of anything the alt-med side says because they have this attitude that you can never trust scientists… unless what they’re saying agrees with your preconceptions. Then, there’s no way they could be wrong, and “their methodology isn’t flawed! It’s just your perception of reality that’s flawed!”)

By: Kurt

Kurt — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 02:05:19 +0000

My daughter turned two months old yesterday, and I proudly brought her to the pediatrician for her first major round of vaccinations today – including her DTAP. Had anyone approached me in the hallway and tried to convince me otherwise, I would have straight-up Falcon Punched them back to the 18th century. All the semi-literate mouth-breathing morons for whom ‘science’ is a thing spoon-fed to them by Dr. Oz or Deepak Chopra or other purveyors of woo and anti-intellectual nonsense can go take some homeopathic sleeping pills and shut the f##k up.

By: Jen

Jen — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 22:14:42 +0000

Something similar happened to me when I was a baby–I caught the measles from a friend of my parents, who’d been vaccinated in the early days of measles vaccines, and hadn’t gotten a booster later in life. Because of this, he caught the measles, and before anyone realized what it was (since measles are now so rare that doctors don’t even recognize it anymore), I and another infant who was also too young for a vaccine had both caught it. Thankfully, both of us were fine, but the doctor who treated me and the other baby said that it could have been much worse.

By: Kit R.

Kit R. — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 20:52:07 +0000

The “how to prevent whooping cough” website says to talk to your doctor. Which is great, if you have one, and medical insurance.

Time for me to go bothering people at social service outlets!

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 19:32:39 +0000

Vewt Rewq:

When my son was born he was given the MMR but not this vaccine.

That is interesting, especially since the MMR is not given until a child is more than a year old in most countries. And even where it is given early (like India), never to newborns.

By: Todd W.

Todd W. — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 15:59:30 +0000

@Nigel Depledge

You also need an appropriately religiously inspired wardrobe. That gives credence to one’s words among the faithful. Just look at Ms. Scheibner’s lovely monk-like robey garment and penitent chain about her neck.

By: Vert Rewq

Vert Rewq — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 15:23:38 +0000

I was vaccinated in the 60s as a baby and had a very bad reaction, nearly died, and I caught whooping cough when I was 14.

When my son was born he was given the MMR but not this vaccine. After much consultation we found out that I was given attenuated virus and the current vaccine is different,. He was vaccinated and had no side effects.

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:50:08 +0000

@ Todd W (67) -
Oh, man, I have only a tiny room full of bits of paper. And no parsnip box (where I come from, parsnips grow in the ground, not in boxes). So I’m clearly not such an expert after all.

By: TechyDad

TechyDad — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:40:01 +0000

@ausduck,

She definitely seems like a quack of the first order. There’s a complete disconnect between her and reality. It would actually be funny listening to her “theories” on how a baby who died of pertussis was actually killed by vaccines if she wasn’t a) putting so many lives in jeopardy and b) hurting people who have just lost their babies by blaming them for the babies’ deaths (when, in reality, people like her are probably more to blame).