Pertussis Outbreak in Pennsylvania

There has been an outbreak of pertussis, also known as “whooping cough,” in Pennsylvania. The number of cases significantly exceeds the normal low number that originates primarily from people who contract it while traveling abroad. Like the outbreaks of measles I have been posting about in Pennsylvania, America, Europe and Central Asia, it is occurring among those, especially children, who are unvaccinated. Vaccine resistance over the last decade has decreased the herd immunity necessary to protect those who cannot be vaccinated or who have immune systems too compromised for vaccines to be effective. For most people, vaccines are effective and safe — far safer than the diseases they protect against. As I have posted, vaccine hesitancy was encourage by since-debunked theories about the safety of vaccines, and is embraced for ideological reasons on both the far left and far right, exacerbated by libertarian resistance to vaccine requirements, and amplified by disinformation from the Russian Federation. As a result, diseases like pertussis and measles, which were nearly eradicated earlier this century in America and Europe, have reappeared, while vaccine hesitancy against the vaccines for Coronavirus 2019 Disease greatly contributed to cases, hospitalizations, long-term symptoms, and deaths during the pandemic, even though the vaccines have proven to be both safe and effective.