Nexus - 0222 - New Times Magazine-pages

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NEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCE WHOOPING COUGH IN THE USA tainly can't be blamed on falling vaccination | latest survey JAMA, 16 March 1994, p. 833). by Greg Beattie rates. These mandatory vaccination laws in the | That means that roughly half the US preschool- The Journal of the American Medical | US are not until the child becomes old enough | ers are unprotected. - Association last year carried an article entitled, | for school. Most cases of whooping cough occurred in “Pertussis Surveillance: United States, 1989- According to the JAMA article, in the period | the preschool age group. Interestingly the report 1991” from the Centers for Disease Control | 1980-1991, the increase was experienced far | provided statistics on the vaccination status of (JAMA, 24-31 March 1993, p. 1489). more by the school-aged group than the pre- | preschoolers who were struck by the disease. The report stated that since 1922, doctors | schoolers. For infants under one year, there was The first report showed that of all the cases of have been required to report diagnosed cases of | practically no increase, but as ages went up, so | whooping cough in 1989-91, 35% were fully up whooping cough (pertussis) to the authorities. | did the increase in whooping cough. The great- | to date with vaccination. Actually, 61% had The statistics showed that the disease declined | est (approximately five-fold) increase was in | received whooping cough vaccine, but were not steadily from 1922 onward. According to the | those aged 15 and over. all fully up to date with the time schedule. In- report, after 1976 the trend completely reversed. The story continued in an article about a year | other words, over one-third of the victims had The disease started increasing. later JAMA, 2 February 1994, p. 340), entitled | been fully protected and almost two-thirds were A glance at the accompanying graph indicated | “Resurgence of Pertussis: United States, 1993". | partially protected! Why did the disease strike that the change occurred between 1976 and 1980 | The article confirmed that whooping cough was | so many protected preschoolers when there were and the figures continued increasing to the end | still increasing and in 1993 had reached its high- | millions of unprotected to choose from?” of the graph (1991). The report suggested that | est level since 1967! The second report presented a worse picture. "...the observed increase may be a function of It stated that “the total number of reported | “This time (cases for 1993), 53.1% of the victims improved reporting of cases", and offered no | cases has increased in each successive year since | were up to date! Including those not up to date, further explanation. 1977. Reasons for this resurgence of pertussis | this brings us to a figure of 84%! So, on this This is a curious situation because vaccination | are unclear... Furthermore, the proportion of | occasion, over half the victims had been fully was stepped up during this period. Mandatory | reported pertussis cases among children aged 1- | protected and over four-fifths partially protected. vaccination of children for school entry had suf- | 4 years has not increased during 1980-1993." | This indicates that vaccination did not have a fered poor conformity until 1976 when Jimmy | By contrast, the proportion of cases in the 10- | protective effect after all. Carter became President. According to Coulter | years-and-over age group was said to have Searching the Morbidity and Mortality and Fisher (A Shot In The Dark, 1991) the | increased from 15.1% during 1977-1979 to | Weekly Reports (published each week by the national allocation of $7.5 million was increased | 26.95% during 1992-93. In other words, | Centers for Disease Control) for 1993, I found in 1977 to $14.5 million, then in 1978 to $33 | preschoolers did not suffer the increase—only | two further reports worth mentioning. The first million, and in 1978 to $46.9 million. school-aged children did. was in Massachusetts involving 218 students, By August 1989 there were only ten states Although vaccination of school-age children | 96% of whom had been fully vaccinated. The which did not have whooping cough vaccination | in the US is almost universal, rates for pre- | second involved only four cases—three students required by law as a precondition for entry to | schoolers is considerably lower. For two-year- | and their teacher. The three students were fully school. So the increase in whooping cough cer- | olds it is approximately 44%, according to the | vaccinated; the teacher's status was not known. 1/2h ad 6u ¢ NEXUS VERITAS PRESS OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 1994