A) The pertussis vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission of the disease (and in fact may increase transmission since vaccinated individuals are likely to be asymptomatic and hence no precautions not to expose infants in the family will be taken).
Thank you for articulating exactly why we should be vaccinated. Vaccinated people do not get the sniffles/sneezes from the initial whooping cough, and are therefore LESS likely to transmit it.
Isn't that the whole purpose of vaccination? Symptomatically, the initial presentation of whooping cough in adults and children is that of a very mild "common cold" for two weeks, which is also their most infectious stage. The characteristic whooping cough itself does not commence until until the 3rd-4th week. You CAN'T tell the difference in the first 2 weeks between a common cold and whooping cough unless you do nasal swabs, nor would you necessarily suspect anything wrong with infants other than the usual "sniffles" they get at that age.
"The tragic irony is that the baby in WA who died of whopping cough last year was likely exposed to B.pertussis by a family member who was recently vaccinated under the misguided belief that it would help protect the baby from the disease. This latest research castes a very different perspective to the recent fear-driven media campaigns for mandatory vaccinations."
B. pertussis is endemic to the environment, you will NEVER get rid of it, I'm sure there are other animal vectors and pools that are capable of storing and spreading it (family pet?), without necessarily being affected by it (see also various "plague's" and mice/rats - the mice/rats survive, but the diseases kill humans). It only takes one sneeze/cough/close breath near a newborn to transmit whooping cough. Are you REALLY trying to convince us that there has been NO OTHER human contact that this infant had has in WEEKS? I call BS on that. It could have been ANY contact that that baby had had in the 2-6 week latency timeframe (ie., the timeframe of getting the bacterial load on board, to onset of symptoms). Blaming one individual, ANY one individual is a massive call, and without any logic at all.
