Posted on 08/14/2010 9:15:14 PM PDT by markomalley
California is in the midst of its worst outbreak of whooping cough in a half-century. More than 2,700 cases have been reported so far this year — eight times last year's number at this point. Seven of the victims, all infants, have died.
And here's what really worries pediatricians like UCLA's Harvey Karp: Doctors thought they wiped out whooping cough when they developed vaccines decades ago.
The disease hits young children hardest, especially ones who are not vaccinated or who have not yet built up full immunity. The prescribed vaccination regimen begins with a shot at two months and continues until children are 5 years old. For many children, it can take that long for complete immunity to develop — and until then, they're vulnerable.
The California epidemic has raised plenty of questions about the role of vaccination and the increasing numbers of parents who decide not to vaccinate their children. California's Department of Public Health cites three schools in the state where 80 percent of parents have signed a "personal belief exemption" to keep their children from being vaccinated.
That's part of what's behind this epidemic, Dr. Karp tells NPR's Guy Raz. "And it's in part because the immunity of people who were immunized earlier has waned," he adds.
In fact, Karp estimates that 75 percent to 90 percent of whooping cough cases occur in teenagers and adults, for whom it is not deadly. Most adults may experience only a lingering cough. The danger occurs when adults and teenagers — whose immunity wanes around 12 years old — contract whooping cough and unwittingly give it to infants.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
“Think liberal idiots like my sister who wouldn’t get her kids vaccinated”
Yes, sorry but agreed. Those are the people to blame, not illegal immigrants.
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You puy everyone at risk by relying on those who do vaccinate to provide herd immunity which protects your family. I think you need to consider that in your “ principled stand”. This is why people especially babies who have not developed immunity get exposed to whooping cough. The disease can be wiped out if everyone is vaccinated.
“Last time I checked, we live in America. Our family chooses not to vaccinate. Live with it.”
Thank you! Vaccines kill or maim many more than the diseases they are supposed to wipe out. And ‘immunity’ from vaccines is almost always temporary. Another factor is that the diseases being attacked with vaccines are also attacked with antibiotics. They become much more virulent. Modern medicine is creating a monster of epic proportions. Only natural treatments that the doctors won’t use attack and kill some of the super bugs floating around us, and especially in hospitals.
And you are right. It is not a liberal thing. All the people I know who are opposed to vaccines are anything but liberals. Liberals just bend over or roll up their shirt sleeve for whatever the De Factos ask of them. Is this thread flushing out some not-so-conservative Freepers?
Malarkey.
"And ‘immunity’ from vaccines is almost always temporary.
Which is why there are booster shots.
"Another factor is that the diseases being attacked with vaccines are also attacked with antibiotics. They become much more virulent. Modern medicine is creating a monster of epic proportions."
Antibiotic overuse/misuse in the second and third world are the major reasons for the development of antibiotic resistance. But antibiotic resistance is irrelevant to the question of immunization by vaccines.
"Only natural treatments that the doctors won’t use attack and kill some of the super bugs floating around us, and especially in hospitals."
What would those "natural treatments" be??? "Colloidal silver???
Two out of three ain't bad.
Down here in San Diego, the illegals and legals alike, go across the border for health treatment. It's cheaper and they don't see it as not being safe medical care.
Working at a school, we ask that all the kids get immunized but I don't think we have a way to enforce it. I've not seen our school bar a student from attending w/o med forms being completed like we used to.
Barack Hussein Obama is the guilty party here. If he had been upholding the Constitution he swore to defend, he would have been protecting our border and consequently our children.
He needs to be impeached and tried for treason.
TB is on the rise in california.
If one of your kids contracts a serious illness and transmits it to a classmate, then I guess we'll see what the rest of your community thinks of your "principled stance".
Please cite a source for this claim.
That's because THE DISEASES HAVE BEEN ALMOST ERADICATED BY DECADES OF VACCINATIONS, DAMMIT!!
Just wait till the ideas you are advocating take hold and we start seeing kids die, by the truckload, of measles, whooping cough, meningitis.
It's bad enough, although understandable, when I hear about Gaia-worshipping hippies endorsing this no-vaccination crapola. Hearing supposedly intelligent conservatives spouting it makes me want to go live on another planet.
We selectively vaccinate our children.
It’s a risk-reward calculation.
Some vaccines can have very serious and permanent side effects and some have open questions not yet fully examined due the length of “trial” to show long-term effects. We feel no need to play guinea pig or “data point” for the drug companies.
H1N1 was one we avoided and there have been several other “safe” vaccines.
“...makes me want to go live on another planet.”
So go.
Read the article posted, for starters.
From the article...
“The danger occurs when adults and teenagers — whose immunity wanes around 12 years old — contract whooping cough and unwittingly give it to infants.”
This is true for nearly all vaccines.
So do the vaccines and the antibiotics. But don’t force vaccinations. Think Autism...known to be caused by mercury in vaccines. Flu passed by vaccines. Polio passed to some by vaccines in the heyday for this.
Seventy five years ago polio was cured in 48 hours by a magnesium chloride tonic. So was diphtheria. Google it if you doubt this. There was never a need for iron lungs and disabled people...the medical profession did not want a simple cure that had insignificant cost.
The same magnesium chloride tonic has successfully cured MRSA...something doctors can’t do with their antibiotics (MRSA exists because of too much antibiotic use...in this country, not in the 3rd world). This disease is passed to patients in hospitals because of negligent sanitation. Ozone use would kill most of the bugs passed in hospitals before patients become infected. C-Diff is another of those really nasty hospital diseases.
BINGO!
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