Bad Astronomy

Pertussis Can Kill

I really, really wish I didn’t have to post something like this. I wish it didn’t exist at all. But it does, so I must. Warning: this video is very difficult to watch, and may be upsetting to people.

As a parent—as a human being—watching that video tears my heart out.

These outbreak of pertussis and measles are happening all over the world, and that includes the United States. Last week, a baby in Orange County, Florida, died of whooping cough. We nearly lost a baby in a recent outbreak in my home town of Boulder, Colorado—an affluent, well-educated town, on average. These diseases are highly contagious, but they are also preventable.

That’s why I can’t say this enough. Talk to your board-certified doctor, and if they say so, get your TDaP booster, make sure your other shots are up-to-date, and get your family vaccinated. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell everyone.

Because it’s just this simple, and it’s not hyperbole: The fewer people who are vaccinated, the greater the chance a preventable disease will run rampant. And the vicitms are usually those who don’t have any say in the matter.

Dana McCaffery
in 2009, Dana McCaffery, a baby in Australia, lost her life to pertussis at the age of four weeks.

Photo by DanaMcCaffery.com

My thanks to MistressMousey on Twitter.