|Vaccines Injury Your Brain|
Vermont is experiencing the most severe outbreak of pertussis, or whooping cough, in documented history. While state numbers show the vaccine’s inefficacy in the Green Mountain State, top health officials say there’s no better solution. The 568 cases the state has so far recorded this year are double the previous high of 283 cases set in 1997. To address the situation, the Department of Health administered more than 3,200 TDaP — or tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis — vaccinations for free on Wednesday, and the state is encouraging all Vermonters to get vaccinated. The outbreak has also rekindled a passionate debate over how to best address immunization and whether legislation mandating vaccines in school-aged children is necessary.
“The vaccination is the best way we have in public health to protect pertussis,” said Patsy Kelso, state epidemiologist. But the pertussis vaccination is also one of the least effective immunization regimens that are commonly prescribed. According to the CDC, the TDaP vaccination protects seven out of 10 people, and the DTaP — diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis — vaccination used on children has an efficacy rate of 80 percent to 90 percent during and after the five-shot process. After five years, the CDC estimates the efficacy rate drops to 70 percent.
A New England Journal of Medicine study found that a child’s chance of contracting pertussis increases 42 percent every year after the fifth dose. The Journal of the American Medical Association conducted similar research and came to the same conclusion: The DTaP vaccination wanes in efficacy. In August, the state found that 90 percent of 178 Vermont kids between the ages of six months and 18 years who contracted pertussis had received at least one dose of the vaccination. About 80 percent of those children had received five or six doses. Since then, the state has not recorded how many people who have contracted pertussis were vaccinated, and the state doesn’t plan to use these numbers to make policy. “We know that pertussis can occur in vaccinated people, and our efforts are focused on increasing vaccination rates and tracking cases,” said Kelso. “Whether a case was vaccinated or not wouldn’t change anything we’re doing.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), roughly 93 percent of Vermont’s kindergartners have received the DTaP vaccination and about 90 percent of kids over the age of 10 have received the TDaP vaccination. Vermont Department of Health Commissioner Harry Chen. VTD File Photo/Alan Panebaker
Commissioner of the Department of Health Harry Chen said that although the vaccination has a lower efficacy rate than others, it still provides a higher level of protection to communities and can help mitigate the effects of pertussis if contracted. “There’s no perfect vaccine, but it is the best thing we have to prevent pertussis,” he said. “So, even if after nine or 10 years it’s only (70 to) 80 percent effective, it’s still the best we have. Certainly the CDC will look at new vaccines. But, until then, our best strategy is to get everyone vaccinated.”
Vaccine Exemption Forms
Here is a video I did on the Washington Whooping Cough Outbreak with 74% Vaccinated involved: