There was fuss in the media last month about a little study of 26 vaccinated Florida pre-schoolers, who got sick with B. pertussis whooping cough or had pertussis-like symptoms during a five-month period in 2013. All of the children, aged one to five years attending the Tallahassee preschool, had received three to four doses of pertussis vaccine (DtaP) according to the CDC recommended schedule.

Vaccine orthodoxy dictates that if 90% or more of people in a community get vaccinated, the community will be protected from infectious disease. However, the CDC now quietly admits on its website that “the bacteria that cause pertussis are always changing at the genetic level” and there is “waning immunity” from the vaccine.

Clearly, six doses of pertussis vaccine given to children between two months and 16 years of age cannot prevent pertussis infection and asymptomatic transmission of infection by vaccinated persons. Pertussis vaccination does not prevent fully vaccinated children and adults from transmitting the infection to infants under two months of age, who are the ones most likely to die from complications of pertussis.

Pertussis vaccine acquired herd immunity is a myth. So what is the solution that public health officials have come up with? It is irrational and completely unscientific but here it is: vaccinate all pregnant women.