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What’s Really to Blame for California’s Whooping Cough Epidemic?

January 07, 2011
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The following referenced information contains opinion and perspective on a health topic related to vaccine science, policy, law or ethics that is being discussed in public forums, including in medical, law and other professional journals; newspapers, magazines and other print; broadcast and online media outlets; state legislatures and the U.S. Congress.

Readers are encouraged to go to the websites of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) for the perspective of federal agencies responsible for vaccine research, development, regulation and policymaking, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for information on vaccine policymaking; to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for information on regulating vaccines for safety and effectiveness; and to National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for information on research and the development of new vaccines.

The World Health Organization has stated that “vaccine hesitancy” is one of the top 10 global public health threats.

cough vaccine An investigation by California news agencies and watchdog organizations is raising serious concerns about whether the whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine is actually working.

In 2010, nearly 1,000 adults and children have tested positive for whooping cough -- and more than half of them had been vaccinated.

According to 10News:

"... [S]cientists ... discovered the pertussis bacteria had mutated almost two decades ago ... [T]he new generation of vaccines, which came out around the same time, was not tested on the mutation ... [T]he new strain can overpower the vaccine."

For an eye-opening look at the current situation, watch the KPBS videos linked below, especially the one from December 16. You will learn just how often the vaccine fails and start to understand how immunized people are actually spreading the disease. They also examine why most people have never heard of these facts -- because the experts who influence vaccine policy have strong ties to vaccine companies.

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Media headlines have been reporting on California's whooping cough (pertussis) outbreak -- the "worst in six decades" -- that has sickened nearly 1,000 adults and children and reportedly killed 10 newborns.

Typically along with news of the outbreak is a finger pointed at unvaccinated people for causing the rise in whooping cough cases, which actually has nothing to do with it. But now, thanks to an investigation by California news agencies and the Watchdog Institute, at least a couple of media outlets are reporting the truth: that the pertussis vaccine is probably not that effective.

Whooping Cough Cases Increase Despite High Vaccination Rates

Virtually every kindergartner in the United States has received all of the pertussis shots recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). CDC data also shows that 84 percent of children under 3 have received four DTaP shots, which is the acellular pertussis vaccine that was approved in the United States in 1996.

Despite this high vaccination rate, the disease has not been eradicated and every several years a new outbreak is reported.

As Barbara Loe Fisher, founder of the National Vaccine Information Center, reported:

"Even with super high pertussis vaccine coverage in America and other countries like the Netherlands, Australia, Finland and Canada, whooping cough disease cannot be prevented. There are two main reasons for this fact.

First, pertussis vaccines widely used since the 1950's have not prevented whooping cough disease from circulating in vaccinated populations. Unknown numbers of children and adults, who have gotten all government recommended pertussis shots, can and do develop whooping cough or are carriers without symptoms.

Because pertussis vaccine immunity is only temporary and does not last, health officials are now telling teenagers and adults to get more booster shots. But that is not going to matter if scientific evidence that B. pertussis organisms have mutated and become vaccine-resistant turns out to be correct.

A second important reason is that another Bordetella organism – parapertussis – also can cause whooping cough. B. parapertussis symptoms, while often milder, can look exactly like B. pertussis. But doctors rarely recognize or test for parapertussis. And there is NO vaccine for parapertussis.

The DTaP vaccine given 5 times to children under age 6 and booster doses for teenagers and adults does not protect against whooping cough caused by B. parapertussis."

And according to a data analysis by the Watchdog Institute, up to 83 percent of those diagnosed with whooping cough in California this year had been immunized. Dr. Frits Mooi and other government scientists from Amsterdam believe this high failure rate is due to the pertussis bacteria having mutated almost two decades ago, and the vaccine being useless against this new strain.

Further, even under the best circumstances, the whooping cough vaccine is only 85 percent effective according to the drug companies, which means anyone who is vaccinated can still get the disease.

So the truth is that these whooping cough outbreaks and deaths cannot be blamed on parents choosing not to vaccinate their children. The older DPT and newer DTaP vaccines have simply never been very effective.

Whooping Cough Manufacturers Fund Expert Groups on Vaccine Policy

The KPBS/Watchdog Institute investigation not only revealed that a high percentage of those with whooping cough had been vaccinated, but also that Sanofi Pasteur and GlaxoSmithKline -- two whooping cough vaccine manufacturers -- provide funding for the "expert" groups that make vaccine recommendations to government agencies.

This includes the Global Pertussis Initiative, which includes 35 medical experts from 16 countries, and the International Consensus Group on Pertussis Immunization. Research from members of the Global Pertussis Initiative is widely cited and has been used for setting vaccination schedules and publicizing health guidelines in countries around the world, including the United States.

The U.S. CDC has cited information from the Global Pertussis Initiative and members of the group have advised the World Health Organization as well.

Clearly the vaccine industry seems to view the 308 million people living in the United States as little more than pin cushions for their profitable vaccine products, so the fact that they are so intricately involved in establishing vaccine policy is a problem.

They're also heading out to gain more recruits in a more grassroots fashion, such as Sanofi Pasteur's "Sounds of Pertussis" Facebook campaign, which has over 62,000 fans. Campaigns like these position vaccines like DTaP as miracle cures to keep you well, while downplaying the efficacy questions that are now being widely circulated … and completely overlooking the risks as well.

Whooping Cough Vaccine Risks You Should Know

As Barbara Loe Fisher states:

"Of all the vaccines which have been routinely used by children in the past century, the brain damaging effects of the pertussis (whooping cough) portion of DPT vaccine is among the most well documented in the scientific literature.

Created in 1912, the crude pertussis vaccine basically consisted of B. pertussis bacteria killed with heat, preserved with formaldehyde, and injected into children. In the early 1940's, aluminum was added as an adjuvant and later the mercury preservative, thimerosal, was added when pertussis was combined with diphtheria and tetanus vaccines to create DPT.

Pertussis vaccine was never studied in large clinical trials before being given to children in the first half of the 20th century or after it was combined into DPT and recommended for mass use by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1947."

You can read numerous personal accounts from families of children who died or became seriously ill following the DPT vaccine in this transcript of a 1986 meeting of the Immunization Practices Advisory Committee. This was shortly after a similar whooping cough outbreak in 1985, during which most of the media also blamed the outbreak on parents of unvaccinated kids.

For even more information on the background of the DPT vaccine, read Barbara Loe Fisher's book DPT: A Shot in the Dark, which was the first major, well documented critique of America's mass vaccination system calling for safety reforms and the right to informed consent to vaccination.

As for risks of the DTaP vaccine, this shot has been linked to:

Fever, including high fever over 105 degrees F

Seizure

Non-stop crying

Serious allergic reaction

Permanent brain damage

Coma

Swelling of the entire arm or leg where the shot was given

Most of the effects are thought to occur from the effects of the pertussis toxin itself. Fisher reports:

"Biological mechanisms for pertussis vaccine induced brain damage center on pertussis toxin (PT), one of the most lethal toxins in nature. Pertussis toxin is a known neurotoxin, a reliable inducer of brain inflammation and brain damage, which is why it is used in lab animals to deliberately induce EAE (experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis).

Pertussis toxin is implicated in brain inflammation caused by pertussis (whooping cough) complications as well as pertussis vaccine complications.

Unfortunately, pertussis toxin is also thought to be responsible for stimulating immunity, which is why it remains in DPT, DTaP and Tdap vaccines.

Other ingredients in DPT vaccine, which have been associated with neuroimmune dysfunction and may interact synergistically with pertussis toxin to cause shock, brain damage or death are: endotoxin, aluminum and mercury."

Get the Facts Straight Before You Vaccinate

No matter what vaccination choices you make for yourself or your family, there is a basic human right to be fully informed about all risks and have the ability to refuse to allow substances you consider to be harmful, toxic or poisonous to be forced upon you.

In the case of whooping cough, it is still infecting both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, and cases increase every four to five years no matter how high the vaccination rate.

Many, if not most, children and adults survive whooping cough without any complications whatsoever, but some do not. Similarly, some receive the whooping cough vaccine without a problem, while others do not, and have been harmed or have died after receiving the shot.

The partnership between government health agencies and vaccine manufacturers is moving closer and closer to discriminating against those who want to exercise their informed consent rights when it comes to making voluntary vaccination decisions, but for now you still have that choice, and should be fully informed when making it.