(You will better understand these blogs if you study each link). In a letter dated 18 May 2012, the Ministry of Health wrote:
The pertussis containing vaccines are effective but do not protect all babies. The pertussis vaccine currently used in New Zealand and other developed countries offers protection of around 84 percent after three doses….. Adults immunisation is recommended for those who have contact with babies or someone who has an underlying respiratory condition.
Pertussis incidence and mortality have declined in the last 50 years in many places around the world mainly as a result of immunisation activities. However, the incidence of pertussis disease has increased in countries where pertussis immunisation rates decreased in the past for example Japan, Sweden and United Kingdom. When immunisation programmes were re-established the rates of disease decreased again.
So lets look at the comment about Sweden, because the Ministry of Health's insinuation is that before Sweden dropped the vaccine in 1979, things were great; ....after they stopped, cases rose, .... and after they started the vaccine again in 1996, things went back to 'wonderful'.
Sweden used no whooping cough vaccines from 1979 to 1996 on the basis that the vaccines had a ZERO efficacy for a very long time. Fine 87 . Yet the Romanos 87 graphs show that from 1959 until they dropped the vaccine, there was a decrease in whooping cough. If ....that decrease is going to be attributed to a vaccine – (any vaccine), why did Sweden not replace their "useless" vaccine, with another vaccine from another European country, which was - according to all other the surrounding countries.... “supposedly” efficacious for them?
I cannot understand their reasoning. They wanted a vaccine – no doubt about it - but seemingly, no vaccine from anywhere in the world, was good enough for them. I corresponded with Dr Romanos over the years, and because their death rate was so low, and primarily in people with a predisposing condition, they didn't see the need to use any other "flawed" vaccine.
Obviously, the MINUTE they dropped the vaccine, the notifications of cases started to rise. That's a natural consequence of doctors saying to themselves, “Oh, now we don’t have a vaccine, we better start taking good notice of what is happening in our practices, so that we can justify bringing back a whooping cough vaccine some time in the future.” ?
You don’t stop using a zero efficacy vaccine which accompanied a supposed decline... and refuse to use any vaccine…then….. “suddenly” have a huge rise in notified cases, UNLESS the collation of whooping cough cases before the vaccine was stopped was worse than pathetic, on the assumption that the vaccine worked.
For nearly 20 years, while the rest of the world ploughed on using pertussis vaccines - Sweden used nothing.
Then Sweden introduced an acellular vaccine in 1996, and - just like after they introduced the whole cell vaccine (which supposedly didn't work)...., - the rates of whooping cough went down again. In this very long highly convoluted report you will see their minutae analysis of their wonderful new acellular vaccine, which they are convinced has done the trick, and radically reduced whooping cough infection rates.
Interestingly a Norwegian article points out, (while discussing the fact that the Norway vaccine only has a 30% effectiveness...) Sweden has NOT experienced what the rest of the world has since 1965 – a huge increase in cases in adolescents.
There is a good reason for that.
Because Sweden's old vaccine had zero efficacy, their reporting might have been as appalling as everyone else, with mild cases ignored, as Jenkinson points out. It could have been that because Sweden is one of the few countries in the world which has had a continuation of natural immunity until 1996, when they introduced the acellular vaccines, their adolescents and adults are still blessed with strong natural immunity of much longer duration.
However, in another 20 years, Sweden may well start to experience a rise in adolescents and adults seen in the rest of the world..... because by then, their vaccines will have completely changed the immune function of their vaccinated generations. Then, Sweden's whooping cough epidemiology will start to look very different to today.
