Dr. Gordon T. Stewart was a professor of the University of Glasglow. Not only was he a medical doctor and professor of public health, but he also analyzed key trends in vaccination, particularly “whooping cough” or pertussis vaccination. Here are a few of his observations;
Pertussis was in decline before the vaccine was in use:
“Historically, the dominant and obvious fact is that most communicable diseases of childhood have become less serious in all developed countries for 50 years or more. Whooping cough is no exception. It has behaved in this respect exactly like measles…and similarly to scarlet fever and diphtheria, in each of which at least 80% of the total decline in mortality, since records began to be kept in the United Kingdom in 1860, occurred before any vaccines or antimicrobial drugs were available and 90% or more before there was any national vaccine programme”
High vaccination rates do not protect from pertussis:
Stewart, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 35 (1981): 139-155.
“Recent reports from elsewhere make it clear not only that whooping cough can occur in highly vaccinated populations but also that reduction of vaccination as in West Germany, does not necessarily lead to recurrence of outbreaks or to a rise in mortality. In Egypt, it is recorded that notifications and mortality fell continuously from 1950 in a population that was largely unvaccinated until 1974. In recent outbreaks in the USA and Canada substantial proportions of cases occurred in vaccinated children.”
All quotes can be found at: Gordon T. Stewart, “Whooping Cough in Relation to Other Childhood Infections in 1977-9 in the United Kingdom” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 35 (1981): 139-155.
