shira
Diamond Member
- Jan 12, 2005
- 9,567
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You're misinterpreting the information in the report. Those with recent vaccinations rarely developed the disease. What apparently happened was that the effectiveness of the booster shots wore off earlier than expected.We should not focus on failures, because vaccines have helped eradicate diseases all over the world, small pox for an example.
But then again, doctors should not be spreading 1/2 truths.
The doctors statement in the OP implies that if a child is vaccinated, they will not catch the disease, and that simply is not true.
During the recent whooping cough outbreak in California, the majority of the children that contracted whooping cough were fully vaccinated.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/09/vaccine-response-pertussis/
The schedule of pertussis vaccination and boosters for US children goes like this: 2 months, 4 months, 6 months; between 15 and 18 months; at 5 years, and again at 12 years. (A booster is recommended for adults, especially ones in professions that bring them in close contact with children, but is not legally required.) Witt and his fellow researchers, who include his son and research assistant Max Witt and Kaiser senior pediatrician Dr. Paul Katz, noted that the spike in cases fell in the longest gap between boosters, and began at almost exactly 3 years after the age-5 dose.
We found very low rate of clinical pertussis up to age 8, and at that point it skyrocketed, with the attack rate peaking in the 10-12-year-olds, Dr. Witt said.
In their ICAAC paper, the researchers concluded: Acellular pertussis boosters are effective but less durable than previously thought. Vaccine guidelines and pertussis control measures need to be reconsidered.
So the message from the California outbreak is NOT that the pertussis vaccine was ineffective. The message is that pertussis boosters need to be given more frequently.
And note that pertussis is of greatest risk for infants, who either haven't received any vaccinations at all or who haven't received the full set of shots. That's why herd immunity is extremely important: If the non-infant population if fully vaccinated, with up-to-date boosters, the threat to infants is substantially reduced.
Again, the message to everyone is: You MUST be immunized against pertussis (and MMR). This point you're making that vaccines aren't 100% effective is beside the point; vaccines are a hell of a lot more effective at preventing disease than not receiving vaccinations at all.