“A third unvaccinated infant in Kentucky has died of pertussis as public health officials urge Kentuckians to get vaccinated against the highly contagious disease also known as whooping cough,” reports the Kentucky Lantern:
None of the infants or their mothers had been vaccinated against the respiratory disease, the Kentucky Department of Public Health confirmed.
Kentucky is in the midst of its largest pertussis spike since 2012…the disease has increased nationwide as vaccination rates decline.
As of Nov. 19, there have been 566 cases of whooping cough identified in Kentucky…Babies younger than 1 year old are at the greatest risk for whooping cough.
The best way to prevent whooping cough is by receiving the Tdap or DTaP vaccine, which protects against three bacterial infections — diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis…“We are deeply saddened to learn of another infant death in Kentucky due to pertussis and are concerned by the volume of cases we are seeing throughout the commonwealth,” said Dr. Steven Stack, secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. “We continue to urge Kentuckians to get their whooping cough vaccine and to make sure they are up to date on all other recommended immunizations. Many illnesses can be prevented through vaccination, which helps protect not only the individual but also those around them.”
Last year, whooping cough cases jumped 14-fold in Michigan due to a drop in vaccination.
Vaccines do not cause autism. “Vaccination in general, the MMR vaccine specifically, thimerosal in vaccines, mercury in vaccines—none of it is associated with autism across cohort studies,” notes a science writer, attaching a helpful summary of studies about this, “Across Cohort Studies, Vaccination is Unrelated To Autism.”
“Vaccines are completely, utterly, totally, and entirely unrelated to the development of autism,” notes Steve Stewart-Williams, who writes about psychology and science. Stewart-Williams cites research such as the scholarly article, “Vaccines are not associated with autism: An evidence-based meta-analysis of case-control and cohort studies.” As that article notes, a large amount of research refutes the false claim that vaccines cause autism.
Falling vaccination rates have led to deaths, such as the death of an unvaccinated child from measles in Los Angeles in September.
“Measles vaccination has saved 94 million lives globally since 1974. Of those, 92 million were children”, says Our World in Data. But measles vaccination rates have fallen in the U.S., and as a result, an unvaccinated child died this year in Texas.
