The Covid epidemic and its treatment have put vaccination back in the limelight. They’ve also created new labels for people who ask questions: “antivaxxer,” “vaccine denier” or just plain “conspiracy theorist.”
However, in the 31 years that WDDTY has been publishing and covering vaccination, we’ve discovered that all vaccines carry a sliding scale of risk and benefit. What’s beneficial for one person may be detrimental to another.
To make an informed decision about vaccines, asking questions is essential and the right of every person, particularly every parent.
In our view, there are three main questions to ask of every vaccine before submitting to it:
•How necessary is it?
•How effective is it?
•How safe is it? In Vaccine Watch, our new series, we do the asking for you.
Pertussis, or whooping cough, is a respiratory infection caused by the Bordetella pertussis bacteria first described in the seventeenth century. The disease results when the bacteria attach to cells of the respiratory tract, produce toxins that paralyze the cilia, the tiny hairs lining the tract, and cause inflammation, interfering with the ability to clear lung secretions.
Usually, the disease course begins with a seven- to 10-day incubation period, followed by cold-like symptoms of runny nose, sneezing, low-grade fever and occasional coughing. The cough gradually worsens after one to two weeks, when the second phase distinguished by the “whooping” cough begins.
The disease got its name from the characteristic high-pitched “whoop” noise that sufferers of more severe infections make as they try to catch their breath during frequent bouts of coughing. Children and young infants, especially, might become cyanotic (having bluish skin) just before a spasm of coughs and appear ill and distressed during the attacks. They may vomit after a bout of coughing, but often they appear to be in good health between bouts.
Attacks, which may strike at night, gradually fade in frequency and are usually
