inactivated pertussis cells (the bacteria that causes whooping cough) drove infection rates in the U.S. below one case per 100,000 people. But adverse side effects of those vaccines led to the development and introduction in the 1990s of acellular pertussis vaccines, which use just a handful of the bacteria’s proteins and bypass most of the side effects. (Currently given to children as part of the Tdap vaccine.)
The problem is, the newer vaccines might not block transmission. A January 2014 study in PNAS by another research team demonstrated that giving baboons acellular pertussis vaccines prevented them from developing symptoms of whooping cough but failed to stop transmission.
Building on that result, Althouse and Scarpino used whopping cough case counts from the CDC, genomic data on the pertussis bacteria, and a detailed epidemiological model of whooping cough transmission to conclude that acellular vaccines may well have contributed to — even exacerbated — the recent pertussis outbreak by allowing infected individuals without symptoms to unknowingly spread pertussis multiple times in their lifetimes.
"There could be millions of people out there with just a minor cough or no cough spreading this potentially fatal disease without knowing it," said Althouse. "The public health community should act now to better assess the true burden of pertussis infection."
What's worse, their model shows that if the disease can be spread through vaccinated, asymptomatic individuals essentially undetected, the level of vaccination needed to protect those that are unvaccinated (so-called ‘herd immunity’) is over 99 percent, impractically high at a time when anti-vaccine campaigns are turning people away from vaccination.
Does this mean the current vaccine is useless? Not at all, the pair says. Until researchers can develop a new pertussis vaccine that blocks transmission, the protection the acellular vaccine offers to individuals is vital.
‘It's the symptoms of pertussis infection that kill people,’ Scarpino says, ‘and the existing vaccine prevents the most debilitating effects of whooping cough.’
In that sense, the research underscores the importance of getting vaccinated, especially for children. "There are lots of people out there who may be transmitting pertussis unknowingly," Scarpino says. "Not vaccinating your own child puts her or him at increased risk of severe disease, even death."
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-06/sfi-swc062215.php
However, in the case of an ongoing infection there is good news:
A team of researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and Synthetic Biologics Inc. have developed two antibodies to potentially treat or prevent pertussis, the highly contagious respiratory tract infection that affects millions of infants around the world and results in an estimated 200,000 child deaths every year.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-12/uota-te120215.php
Covering their tracks there.
What my cat does in the litterbox.
Fact is, they’ve known that the current vaccine was losing its effectiveness for nearly 20 years. Even before the acellular one.
Dr. Mooi has had a research grant to study this very thing since the early/mid 90’s. That they act all shocked now belies the fact they’ve been funding studies of this very thing (with pretty strong conclusions to the affirmative) for two decades.
The same sorts of ‘denial and obfuscation’ occurred when it began to be apparent that antibiotics were losing their effectiveness as well.
It’s what monolithic organizations do.
The really cool part of Dr. Mooi’s research is apparently being vaccinated makes you MORE susceptible to the escape mutant with 10X mortality and morbidity.