# Whooping cough baby's Mom: Not vaccinating your kids can hurt others **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 23, 2016, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooping-cough-babys-mom-not-vaccinating-your-kids-can-hurt-others/758124 "2016-06-23T07:54:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooping-cough-babys-mom-not-vaccinating-your-kids-can-hurt-others/758124/1 "2016-06-23T07:54:28Z")
A 10 week old baby has been in a pediatric intensive care unit in a hospital in Vancouver for a month with whooping cough. She may be there for another two months. Her mom has a simple message: > [@](#): > > “What you do with your kids is your choice, but do not tell me that not vaccinating your kids isn’t hurting anyone but your own kids,” Braiden wrote in a Facebook post that had been shared nearly 21,000 times by Tuesday. > > “ **Isabelle is proof that it harms the other little babes who aren’t old enough to get their vaccines yet**.” > … > Braiden, who declined an interview, said in her post that Isabelle was on a ventilator for three weeks. The girl has had to learn to eat again, and has endured withdrawals from morphine and sedatives, she wrote. > … > “It never crossed my mind to not vaccinate. I want to protect my children and other children,” Braiden said. I hope she gets better, without long-term effects. Being on a ventilator at such a young age can be damaging. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooping-cough-babys-mom-not-vaccinating-your-kids-can-hurt-others/758124/2 "2016-06-23T07:59:20Z")
Agreed totally, but it’s also incumbent upon ADULTS to get a pertussis booster when they have kids or grandkids…I did when my daughter was pregnant with her first babe. So it might not have been a kid passing on the virus, but another adult who wasn’t fully immunised. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooping-cough-babys-mom-not-vaccinating-your-kids-can-hurt-others/758124/3 "2016-06-23T16:55:19Z")
I don’t have any young children of my own anymore, but was wondering if this is something parents these days discuss when setting up play-dates? “Is little Suzie vaccinated? No? Then she can’t come over” ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooping-cough-babys-mom-not-vaccinating-your-kids-can-hurt-others/758124/4 "2016-06-23T16:59:50Z")
It’s not going to make a lick of difference to anti vaxx parents. At some point we need to make life without vaccines simply impossible. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooping-cough-babys-mom-not-vaccinating-your-kids-can-hurt-others/758124/5 "2016-06-23T17:00:51Z")
Do you have a link to the article, because I’d really like to read it. And I agree 100% – I HATE the anti-vax movement. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooping-cough-babys-mom-not-vaccinating-your-kids-can-hurt-others/758124/6 "2016-06-23T18:01:02Z")
So, just curious, what is the anti-vaxxer response to stories like this? Whooping cough isn’t that serious a disease? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooping-cough-babys-mom-not-vaccinating-your-kids-can-hurt-others/758124/7 "2016-06-23T18:10:03Z")
Your post has no link to a cite nor does it seem to have anything to do with vax/novax except a random unsupported statement. Further this board has a pro vax dogma which in many ways I am growing weary and wary of, there is a atheistic ‘religious like’ undertow under the guise of science of this board which has tended to discredit it. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooping-cough-babys-mom-not-vaccinating-your-kids-can-hurt-others/758124/8 "2016-06-23T18:20:10Z")
Pro vax dogma? Oh, great, another one. :rolleyes: [Here’s your damn link.](http://bc.ctvnews.ca/mom-urges-vaccination-as-baby-hospitalized-with-whooping-cough-1.2955748) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooping-cough-babys-mom-not-vaccinating-your-kids-can-hurt-others/758124/9 "2016-06-23T18:22:01Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Do you have a link to the article, because I’d really like to read it. And I agree 100% – I HATE the anti-vax movement. Sorry - must have forgotten this morning. Here it is: > **[Mom urges vaccination as baby hospitalized with whooping cough](https://bc.ctvnews.ca/mom-urges-vaccination-as-baby-hospitalized-with-whooping-cough-1.2955748)** > > Annie Mae Braiden told her story to warn about what happens when parents refuse to vaccinate their kids. Lots more stories if you google “whooping cough Victoria” ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooping-cough-babys-mom-not-vaccinating-your-kids-can-hurt-others/758124/10 "2016-06-23T18:30:11Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Your post has no link to a cite nor does it seem to have anything to do with vax/novax except a random unsupported statement. > > Further this board has a pro vax dogma which in many ways I am growing weary and wary of, there is a atheistic ‘religious like’ undertow under the guise of science of this board which has tended to discredit it. “the guise of science”? In relation to vaccinations? Words almost fail me…but not quite enough to prevent me from telling you that using the words “pro-vax” as a quasi-pejorative suggest scientific illiteracy. Care to tell us your opinion on vaccinations? And why have you shoehorned atheism in there? What the hell has that got to do with anything? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooping-cough-babys-mom-not-vaccinating-your-kids-can-hurt-others/758124/11 "2016-06-23T19:35:56Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Your post has no link to a cite nor does it seem to have anything to do with vax/novax except a random unsupported statement. > > Further this board has a pro vax dogma which in many ways I am growing weary and wary of, there is a atheistic ‘religious like’ undertow under the guise of science of this board which has tended to discredit it. The closest thing to dogma we’ve got going here is Pro-Reality…but you are welcome to argue the other side, if you wish. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooping-cough-babys-mom-not-vaccinating-your-kids-can-hurt-others/758124/12 "2016-06-23T19:41:24Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > So, just curious, what is the anti-vaxxer response to stories like this? Whooping cough isn’t that serious a disease? :smack: Paraphrasing from memory and from the vaxxer thread, that still-living people who survived pre-vaccines childhoods are naturally immune to the illnesses they survived. What sequels they suffer from if any, and the detail about needing to survive them in the first place, are irrelevant. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooping-cough-babys-mom-not-vaccinating-your-kids-can-hurt-others/758124/13 "2016-06-23T19:51:01Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Paraphrasing from memory and from the vaxxer thread, that still-living people who survived pre-vaccines childhoods are naturally immune to the illnesses they survived. But…isn’t that was vaccines do? Give you the immunity without all the illness? I’m being logical, aren’t I? Silly me. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooping-cough-babys-mom-not-vaccinating-your-kids-can-hurt-others/758124/14 "2016-06-23T19:56:31Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > I don’t have any young children of my own anymore, but was wondering if this is something parents these days discuss when setting up play-dates? “Is little Suzie vaccinated? No? Then she can’t come over” Yup. My son is nine, and when he was very little, parents discussed whether or not a particular child in the social circle was vaccinated. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > The closest thing to dogma we’ve got going here is Pro-Reality…but you are welcome to argue the other side, if you wish. Slow-clap… > [@Nava](#): > > Paraphrasing from memory and from the vaxxer thread, that still-living people who survived pre-vaccines childhoods are naturally immune to the illnesses they survived. I had attenuated pertussis. I was vaccinated, but I was exposed to it either before the vaccine had fully taken effect, or I just didn’t hold a titer well for some reason. I had it for only three days, and only one was the cough really serious. I went to the doctor, who told my parents to get a humidifier, and pillows so I could sleep propped up, and gave me some decongestants and codeine as a cough suppressant (it also made me sleep through most of the ordeal). There was only one day the cough was really uncontrollable, but it was awful. I didn’t break ribs, but the urge, the need to cough was so overwhelming, that even when I was out of breath, I would still keep trying to cough. I’ll never forget it. I didn’t know it at the time, but my parents had been instructed to always have one watching me as long as I had the cough for blue lips or fingertips, and to take me to the hospital if that happened. I was three. I can’t even imagine having the full-blown illness where that cough goes one and on for over a week. I keep my pertussis vaccine updated, in case it a fact that I don’t hold a titer well. It’s also possible I was somehow exposed to a weird mutation of the disease that could sneak past the vaccine-induced immunity, which is what can happen when only part of the population is vaccinated. Anyway, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooping-cough-babys-mom-not-vaccinating-your-kids-can-hurt-others/758124/15 "2016-06-23T20:02:55Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > But…isn’t that was vaccines do? Give you the immunity without all the illness? > > I’m being logical, aren’t I? Silly me. And sciency. Which according to **kanicbird** makes you a follower of atheistic undertow. I’m not sure what does atheism have to do with undertow, but it’s probably a figure of speech rather than some reference to Poseidon having a crisis of faith. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooping-cough-babys-mom-not-vaccinating-your-kids-can-hurt-others/758124/16 "2016-06-23T22:02:20Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > So, just curious, what is the anti-vaxxer response to stories like this? Whooping cough isn’t that serious a disease? :smack: I am not defending anti-vaxxers. I am just telling you what their current story is. OK? Please go out and get yourself and your children vaccinated. There are legitimate scientific studies that show that [vaccinated children](http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/6/5/00-0512_article) and [vaccinated baboons](http://www.pnas.org/content/111/2/787) can still be asymptomatic carriers of pertussis. This means that the children and the baboons won’t get sick themselves, but they will spread the disease to others. So the anti-vaxxers claim that, at best, the vaccine is useless in preventing the spread of pertussis. But in addition, they somehow interpret these studies to show that the vaccine _causes_ pertussis. (I really can’t explain this part.) If you are really interested, [here is a pro-vax article that tries to explain](http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/refuting-antivaccination-lie-pertussis-vaccine/). ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2016, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooping-cough-babys-mom-not-vaccinating-your-kids-can-hurt-others/758124/17 "2016-06-24T03:29:23Z")
My mother had whooping cough in 1940 when she was two. She would turn blue and her older sisters had to grab her up by the legs and hit her on the back to clear her airway. She made sure I got my shot, and years later when an epidemic broke out in town I got a booster.