Remember when it used to be funny to make jokes about getting the whooping cough? Well, it’s not anymore — thanks to Jenny McCarthy, scientist, and thousands of other parents who have opted not to vaccinate their kids, this country’s experiencing a retro disease craze more powerful than 1,000 lava lamps. One columnist thinks that only Barbie can save us now. Wait, what?
The Washington Post reports that cities like Minneapolis and San Diego, where many parents think vaccines cause autism, have experienced outbreaks of formerly defunct illnesses like whooping cough. Whooping cough, for those of you who don’t have a sister whose high school was closed for several days due to a town-wide whooping cough outbreak a few years ago, is a serious bacterial infection that can cause six weeks of coughing. The disease kills around a quarter million people a year worldwide. Babies and the elderly are especially susceptible, and it’s highly contagious. It’s also easily preventable with a vaccine. In Europe, many adults receive booster shots against the cough, but in the US, since children were vaccinated and they tend to carry the disease with greater frequency than adults, adults are not typically vaccinated. Therefore, if some parent has decided that they don’t believe in science and they don’t want to vaccinate their kid, and their kid gets sick, you could also get sick. This has health officials worried.
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