Majority of Pertussis Cases in CA among Vaccinated Individuals

[Turquesa]

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/swcounty/article_cdd5eac3-2d89-54cd-b421-a668899709a4.html

This part of the article stood out for me:

Dr. James Cherry, a prominent researcher at UCLA, says increased awareness of whooping cough has led to more reports of it. However, Dr. Fritz Mooi, a well-known Dutch scientist who has been studying mutations of the pertussis bacteria for 15 years, said a more virulent strain of bacteria is contributing to outbreaks.

In either case, both doctors put the issue into better perspective.  It's not as simplistic as authorities once led us to believe, i.e. with gullible, uneducated, autism-fearing parents responsible for increased cases of pertussis. 

(ETA second link)

Edited by Turquesa - 12/17/10 at 1:32pm

[Otto]

Do they pony up their data anywhere? It's hard to make much of a statement like "majority of pertussis cases among vaccinated individuals," which is basically to be expected with substantial coverage and limited efficacy, without age or uptake information.

[ETA.--KPBS, I mean.]

[Turquesa]

It's a fair question, and a good point about the vaccine's inefficacy.  That's no shocker to MDC users but goes against most of the public health dogma.

KPBS goes into greater detail about how they and The Watchdog Institute at SDSU ended up having to gather reports, county by county, of their data.  Some counties were completely opaque, and others handed over their data on request. 

Within days, we began requesting immunization history information from counties that reported high numbers of cases of pertussis. Of the 19 counties contacted, nine responded with immunization information. Officials from the other counties said they either didn’t have the data, or they cited patient privacy in withholding it.

The institute’s analysis of the data provided showed that in cases where immunization history is known, between 44 and 83 percent of the people diagnosed with whooping cough had been vaccinated.

A more recent set of data from the state showed the California Department of Public Health still does not have immunization history information for almost 70 percent of the reported cases. However, in cases where immunization history is known, 83 percent of the people diagnosed with pertussis had been immunized.