Calif. Whooping Cough Cases Near 55-Year High

NPR reports Calif. Whooping Cough Cases Near 55-Year High. "The state health department now says there have been nine death — all babies.
All the infants were 2 months old or younger when they got sick. Eight were Hispanic."

"Overall, more than 4,000 cases of whooping cough, or pertussis, have been reported this year. That's the most since nearly 5,000 cases were reported in 1955, and the year is far from over. Among the cases that public health authorities know have led to hospitalization, nearly three-quarters involved children less than 6 months old."

"To protect the youngest and most vulnerable children, it's important that relatives and the community at large be vaccinated to prevent spread of the whooping cough. Data just published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that in 2009 about 95 percent of American kids, aged 19-35 months, had three or more doses of the vaccine combination that protects against pertussis. But in California, a measure of the uptake of a series of recommended vaccines found only about 72 percent of the kids that age had the shots they needed."

Fuck you Jenny McCarthy and people like Oprah who helped her spread her message.