New Hampshire's vaccination rate is high (good) but diseases are sneaky (bad)
Posted by David Brooks | Monday, May 7, 2012
My Telegraph column today discusses immunization, focusing on a minor whooping-cough outbreak last fall in the state. The outbreak faded, probably due to the state's high rate of childhood vaccination, but the fact that it showed up at all, and mostly in vaccinated children, is a sign that defeating diseases is complicated.
In this case, whooping cough (pertussis) appears to be evolving a strain which can overcome vaccine-produced antibodies more quickly that we're used to. As a result, the disease can re0emerge before kids get their booster shot at age 11.
Clever process, that evolution!
For more details, including (at last count) 11 anti-vaccination comments by a Texas guy whose Facebook handle is AntiVax, read it here, in all its verbal glory.
