Health Insurance and You!

The tragic story of the whooping cough epidemic that has hit California this summer seems to have taken a turn for the worse. On Thursday, health officials announced that a ninth baby has died from the illness. Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, seems like a bad cold or cough in adults but can be fatal for infants. Deaths from whooping cough are relatively rare here in the U.S., and are commonly thought to be a “third-world problem” that we don’t have to worry about. However, in recent years some parents have chosen not to vaccinate their children due to rumors of a link between vaccines and autism. This stems from a study conducted by Andrew Wakefield in 1999, that concluded a temporal relationship existed between MMR shots and autism diagnoses. Since then, Wakefield has been stripped of his medical license and his study has been disproved by subsequent research indicating no correlation between vaccines and autism. Being vocal about this information and dispelling the fears of parents is critical to ending this epidemic of whooping cough deaths. A study published in Pediatrics in 2009 found that children of parents who refuse pertussis immunizations are at high risk for pertussis infection relative to vaccinated children, and that herd immunity doesn’t provide sufficient protection for unvaccinated children. Learn about what the studies and experts say to determine what the benefits and risks associate with vaccines are. Knowledge is power and the more we learn, the more we can prevent future deaths and put an end to this tragedy.