"He can't have pertussis, he had his first round of shots."

[just_lily]

Seriously?

There is a woman on another message board I frequent. She is very, very pro-vax and we have a pretty spirited debate whenever the topic comes up. She believes that vax pretty much saved the world, has actually said "Autism isn't a life sentence", but fully believes that contracting measles would be. Her three-year-old has asthma, but she won't even consider that it could maybe, possibly, have something to do with vaccines.

Now, her three-month-old has been very ill, several trips to the children's hospital, waking up several times a night coughing and crying for the last two weeks, and he has the "whoop".

I asked her (nicely) if the doctors managed to rule out pertussis because it can be rather hard to diagnose with lab tests, depending on when they test, etc. She said "They ruled out pertussis, because he has his first round of shots."



This drives me insane on so many levels. If I took my un-vaxed baby to the ER with the same symptoms she would undoubtabley be diagnosed with pertussis. But her baby has had one dose of DTaP, so he has a "virus". She is blindly vaccinating without even knowing her baby won't have "immunity" until he is six months old. Shouldn't the doctors at least understand this? How can they rule out pertussis in a baby that is clearly showing signs of same, just because of a single dose of vax?

So she will go on thinking how lucky it is that she vaxed her baby, and a pertussis case in a vaccinated baby will go unreported. Plus her babe gets to "ride out the virus" and rewarded with more vaccines.

I am not sure what else to say to her, because I don't want it to be interpreted as an "I told you so", but I am worried about her baby and think he needs to be properly evaluated.

Thanks for listening.

[2boyzmama]

You'd think the doctors would know this, even a fully vaccinated person is only about 60% protected from pertussis, it's just not an effective vaccine, or we wouldn't be seeing the large numbers of it we're seeing. But the good news here is that if this baby does have pertussis, there's nothing they can do anyway. If you can convince her to try giving the baby SA, that would help, but an antibiotic won't. I'm glad actually that they're not trying to medicate the baby with abx that won't be effective and will damage the gut.

Poor baby.

[wallacesmum]

Originally Posted by 2boyzmama

even a fully vaccinated person is only about 60% protected from pertussis,

Is that the case, or is it that 60% of fully-vaxed individuals show high titers?

[T&D2005]

You know, I used to argue with people like this and TRY to make them see the light. Then I saw the light and realized there are some people who won't ever change. I quit stressing myself out about it and hardly go to that forum now. I usually don't open up anything that is titled with a medical issue either. I was just back on this certain forum and saw someone complaining about ear infections.. funny but since her DC is full vax, shouldn't she get less of them according to the mainstream articles? Forget that it is an actual side effect. I just look over to my child and smile knowing he has an informed mother.

[k9sarchik]

I think I would pass along some links for her to read regarding the effectiveness of the vaccine. Point out to her the rash of pertussis that is going on in Charlotte, NC now and that all of the children who have it are fully vaccinated.
And leave it at that.

Maybe one of her dumb doctors will finally diagnose it properly after weeks of the cough when it doesn't go away quickly.