Whooping (Cough)! There it is!

What happened in Los Angeles when a vaccination ordinance was submitted to a popular referendum is typical of what would happen anywhere under the same circumstances. The ordinance was rejected, and smallpox spread through the town. - H. L. Mencken, Notes on Democracy, pg.57

Outbreaks of Whooping Cough (Pertussis) occasionally occur in America. Back in June California had an 5 deaths and 910 cases attributed to the highly contagious disease. The 5 deaths in June were infants of Latino parents and, most likely, had no access or inclination to seek out Health care and Vaccinations.

However, what we are witnessing today is a spread beyond the normal expected areas, as evidenced by the outbreak of 20 cases in two schools in the fabulous North Shore school districts in Wilmette and Winnetka. And thanks to the Anti-Vaccination Mob being moneyed is not a protection.

The Anti-Vaccination Mob has succeeded in reviving and strengthening vanquished diseases. And while the current Mob gained traction from the completely false and dishonestly written 1998 British Paper by the wholly discredited Dr. Andrew Wakefield in which he blamed Autism cases on vaccinations, a large part of the blame for the recent anti-vaccination movement is due to the steadily anti-science narrative, most often championed by Republican Party.

Most scientific theories have negative consequences for Republican Political Power, as such, those theories must be destroyed. But, ignorance doesn't merely belong to Republicans. Celebrities, most famously Jenny McCarthy, and liberals Bill Maher and Robert Kennedy Jr, immune to normal lives have thrown themselves behind the movement. The Anti-Vaccination Movement crosses political affiliation because it is based on the sloppy thinking, which is the natural state of the human brain. The Scientific Method isn't natural and had to be invented to overcome the human predilection to falsely ascribe patterns where they are none and to engage in fallacious post hoc ergo propter hoc thinking.

Many of the techniques used by the Anti-Vaccinators were garnered from the Anti-Evolutionists. I recommend going over the Science Blog Respectful Insolence by ORAC who examines and dissects the various and numerous Anti-Vaccination proponents who are engaging in propaganda, distortions, pseudoscience and outright lies.