as our descent back into the Middle Ages continues

[gh]

shingles part of this discussion moved over to the geezer-shots thread, which was moving in that direction at the same time.

[polevaultpower]

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/ ... gh30m.html

Although much has been made of some Washington residents' reluctance to immunize their children, in fact, most parents are vaccinating their children against pertussis, acknowledged to be a bad bug. Of those children ages 3 months to 10 years who came down with pertussis, about 76 percent had received the recommended vaccines.

That's not 76% of parents are vaccinating against pertussis in WA, the % is much higher than that. That's 76% of kids with pertussis are fully up to date on their pertussis shots.

[Daisy]

That's not 76% of parents are vaccinating against pertussis in WA, the % is much higher than that. That's 76% of kids with pertussis are fully up to date on their pertussis shots.

The key here is that there are unvaccinated kids that have a far greater chance of contrating the disease and spreading it. The whole point of vaccination is to reduce the chance of this. As you get fewer kids vaccinated then there will be a greater chance of an outbreak.

I have not been following this on the news. Just how large is the problem in Washington State? It's hard to judge from % figures.

Edit: I just read the article and it says 10 times higher number of cases than normal. Is this a cluster of cases? Possibly a more virulent strain?

[polevaultpower]

Vaccination rates in WA for pertussis are higher than they have ever been. The current vaccine is less effective than in the past. There are also reports that many doctors were storing it improperly.

Vaccinated kids who get pertussis are less sick than unvaccinated kids and sometimes it does not have the "whoop" sound to it. My hypothesis is that the vaccinated kids are the ones spreading it because they are less likely to stay home from school because the parents think they just have a cold, that it couldn't be whooping cough. I also strongly suspect that the number of cases is being under reported, that the mildest cases are not being treated/tested. I would have loved to see the CDC drop some $ to test everyone in hard hit areas who had cold symptoms.

I'm not anti-vaccine. My kid and my whole extended family are up to date on pertussis shots.

The outbreak is worse in some areas than others but it is a problem in almost every county in the state, and expected to get worse now that school has resumed, and the perpetual rain should return soon.

[Daisy]

The outbreak is worse in some areas than others but it is a problem in almost every county in the state

Sounds like an interesting example. I expect we'll be hearing a lot of different expert opinions on what is happening soon enough.

[Pego]

The outbreak is worse in some areas than others but it is a problem in almost every county in the state

Sounds like an interesting example. I expect we'll be hearing a lot of different expert opinions on what is happening soon enough.

The eventual CDC summary should be most interesting.