not having the vaccine work.” 32
What about the idea that pockets of unvaccinated children can threaten the entire herd? Because the necessary scientific studies have not been done, it’s difficult to answer this question. I called The Principia, a Christian Science school with two campuses, one for preschool to high school students and another for college students, in the St. Louis, Missouri, area. Christian Scientists have a wide range of beliefs, and the Church of Christ, Scientist, allows its members freedom of choice in vaccination and other types of health care; however, many Christian Scientists choose not to vaccinate their children because of their belief in the power of prayer to prevent and heal illness. Of the 1,025 students at The Principia in 2008, more than 90 percent—956—filed vaccine exemptions. Despite the high numbers of unvaccinated children at the school, in the past ten years there have been
no outbreaks on either campus of measles or any other diseases preventable by legally mandated vaccines, and no deaths from these diseases. 33
Whooping cough, aka pertussis, is another highly contagious disease that worries public-health officials, but unlike the measles vaccine, the pertussis vaccine is only 80 to 85 percent effective. 34 According to the CDC, there were approximately 25,616 cases of pertussis nationwide in 2005, 35 and 15,632 in 2006.36 Most teenagers and adults who have whooping cough don’t know it—the disease is mild and annoying (the cough can linger for up to three months), but usually not serious enough to warrant even a visit to the doctor.
In infants, however, whooping cough can be life-threatening. “The bottom line with pertussis is that it’s not a perfect vaccine,” explains James Shames, MD, the medical director of Health and Human Services for Oregon’s Jackson and
Above:
Dr. James shames,
medical director
of health and human
services for Oregon’s
Jackson and Josephine
Counties
32. This and subsequent quotations: personal
communication ( 15 January 2009).
33. Personal communication, Laurel Walters,
Communications Director, The Principia (April
2009).
34. see Note 30: 89.
35. Department of health and human services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “summary of Notifiable Diseases—United states, 2006,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 55, no. 53 ( 21 march 2008): 77; www.cdc. gov/mmWR/PDF/wk/mm5553.pdf.
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