This is the show that will bring you to tears. It’s the one where we tell the story of a couple who lost their daughter and turned the experience into a campaign to help the rest of us.
Here’s the whole show:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IipHGEWikeo&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0]
Every once in a while you meet a person (or couple) who just stop you in your tracks with their story. Tonight you’re going to hear the powerful story of Toni and David McCaffrey whose daughter Dana died in 2009 from whooping cough.
It’s the disease you can’t fight. There is no cure. The antibiotics do nothing. You just have to hope your body is tough enough, and has the training it needs from vaccinations, to fight it.
Dana was born and passed away in an area of Australia that has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country. In Northern New South Wales. And it’s here that a group is continuing to peddle misinformation and lies about vaccinations.
This story will bring you to tears.
Let’s meet the guests:
Bronwyn McCahon: She’s the savvy editor of Cosmopolitan Magazine and newly minted mother. Tonight Bron will be talking about fertility … and what’s had women so scared lately.
Simon Sheikh: Here’s a high achiever. Simon is 25 and director of GetUp, the activist group that campaigns on issues of social justice and the environment. Mostly!
Sam de Brito: He’s the author of Hello Darkness and The Lost Boys and part-time subject of some of your crushes.
Which he informs us is totally OK by him. Sam also writes the weekly Fairfax column All Men Are Liars* *Except Sam de Brito. Which is a fine read. We surprise Sam with his topic this evening. Poor man.
Sarah MacDonald: Funny lady, superb wit and bestseller. That’s not a bad resume. Sarah is the phenomenal talent behind the uber-seller Holy Cow and broadcasts on Radio National.
The panel will also be joined by Dr Rachael Dunlop who will talk us through the science of vaccinations … and why we should all get boosters.
Here’s one of our shots from the record:
For people in Victoria two parents whose families have been affected by Whooping Cough (Di Cherrie and Sarah Nolan) will be at a Whooping Cough Awareness stand at the Victorian Pregnancy Babies and Children’s Expo in Melbourne from the 21st October to 23rd. An immunisation nurse will be there to give free vaccines to dads (partners of pregnant women) and also to the public for a nominal fee.
Top Comments
Isn't the bigger issue here why those poor parents were sent away from the doctors 3 times before the whooping cough was picked up? Or why the parents weren't informed of the risk of whooping cough and steps they could take to minimise their little daughter's risk of catching it before she was old enough to be immunised - ie keeping her home and not letting anyone not fully immunised be around her? It just doesn't make sense to point fingers blindly at anyone who chooses not to immunise their kids because of this really tragic and sad loss. The panel repeatedly asks 'Why would people do that?' But there are lots of valid reasons not to want to immunise - noone seems to have looked into it here though. To say that looking on Google doesn't make you an expert and you shouldn't even have that choice is not helpful to anyone either. We're lucky that we live in a time where we can investigate the risks or immunising or not and decide for ourselves. It's also nothing like drink driving where there's a clear and obvious and unarguably avoidable risk to others. If you believe immunisation protects your kids then by all means immunise them- the status of my kids wouldn't make any difference to yours. This poor baby passing away before she was old enough is another issue altogether. She may have caught it in hospital or even from another fully immunised child or adult. Bottom line the parents have been failed by the medical system that the panel suggests we should have unquestioning faith in.
I live in this area and when my girls were born I was advised by hospital staff not to leave the house with them or come in contact with anyone who had not had their booster shot until my babies could be vaccinated. They believed this risk to be too dangerous to mess with. There is currently a whooping cough and measles epidemic here.
While I was pregnant with my second child, two children from a non-vaccinating family joined my eldests day care. I had to move my daughter because I couldn't risk her bringing home whooping cough to my newborn. This family claimed to vaccinate "naturally".
How can these epidemics be happening in a first-world country? It's putting us back, not forward.
These people need to realise that they are endangering the lives of so many others.