Coincidence? I don't think so, not anymore.
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. —
Orange County health officials said a baby died from whooping cough last week.
This is the first whooping cough death the county has seen in decades. Officials said it's been at least 20 years or more since someone died of the disease.
Whooping cough, also called pertussis, and other diseases are making comebacks, because so many parents are deciding not to vaccinate their kids.
"It's really unfortunate. We're saddened to hear that an infant died of something like this," said Dain Weister with the Florida Department of Health in Orange County.
Officials said the family chose not to vaccinate their child. Some parents are choosing not to fully vaccinate their children because they worry there is a link between the vaccinations and autism.
Flashback to the GOP debates:
"I'm a mom of three children," Bachmann said during the debate in Tampa, Florida. "And to have innocent little 12-year-old girls be forced to have a government injection through an executive order is just flat out wrong."
Bachmann went one step further the following day on the Today Show, saying that a mother came up to her in tears following the debate, and told Bachmann that her daughter became mentally retarded after receiving the HPV vaccine.
"It can have very dangerous side effects," she said on Today. "This is the very real concern, and people have to draw their own conclusions."
Cue the medical community. Experts immediately jumped to debunk these claims.
The American Academy of Pediatrics released a statement to "correct false statements" Bachmann made on the HPV vaccine.
"There is absolutely no scientific validity to this statement. Since the vaccine has been introduced, more than 35 million doses have been administered, and it has an excellent safety record," the statement read. This is a life-saving vaccine that can protect girls from cervical cancer."
This woman is dangerous. A lot of less sophisticated citizens might assume she's telling the truth. She's a US congress person, the smartest of the smart? Someone to trust, right? It's even conceivable that these citizens wouldn't even know how to learn the truth. Who knows the bubble they live in.
Reason and science vs fear and ignorance. It's us or them, literally.