Comments about ‘Dangerous pertussis cases still climbing across Utah, the nation’

We've empowered people who deny science. Of course these are the consequences.

Hutterite - you are referring to those who aren't vaccinated? I'm just getting over Whooping Cough - luckily a mild case but I am vaccinated. Hmmm.....

A lot of adults are not getting their boosters and are spreading it to the kids. At our clinic we have been giving Tdap for a couple of years now and try to get every adult that needs a booster to get one. Most people don't have a clue. For those with children at home it is a "no brainer" but for those without kids there is often a little resistance. Once I explain that Pertussis is that winter time "Chronic Bronchitis" people are more accepting.
No one likes to get shots but Pertussis is serious. In infants it can be a killer. In adults it can keep you out of work, sometimes for weeks at a time.

luv2organze -- Adults need a booster shot. The shot you got as a kid is no longer effective. Parents who refuse to vaccinate their kids are people who believe a celebrity over the scientists who have studied the relationship between vaccination and autism. Hutterite is right -- there are consequences for denying science. Add this to the climate change deniers and you see a pattern -- people would rather believe someone with no education on the subject than someone with expertise. I don't know why, but there is a real anti-intellectualism trend in the country right now. Rubio's comment that he has no idea if the earth is a few thousand years old or not is another example.

And to those who don't get vaccinated here is food for thought....

I recently saw a lawsuit in another state where the parents refused vaccinations for their kids. They sent the kids to school when they were sick and infected many others in the school, and one child died from the disease (not sure if she was unvaccinated too). They traced the outbreak to the one family without the vaccinations, and now many parents are suing the one who refused to vaccinate and spread the disease.

I m not sure of the outcome of the suit, but maybe spreading a preventable disease and then being suid for it is the answer some of these parents need.

vaccines work most effectively because large populations increase their ability to fight the disease by collectively being vaccinated. The net effect is that the disease is not as easily passed through the general population.

Disease Vaccination does not mean disease immunity. And when populations get laxed about vaccinations, those who were vaccinated may be victim to the illnesses against which they were vaccinated.