Tara Hills’ seven children are showing signs of whooping cough shortly after she reversed her position against routine childhood vaccinations. The Ottawa mother had become suspicious of immunization as have a number of Canadian parents, in part because of a thoroughly discredited study linking them to autism.
Doctors, scientists and public health officials have spent considerable effort trying to convince the so-called anti-vaxxers that immunization is safe and critical for preventing serious illnesses in children. Canadian children routinely are given vaccinations to prevent about a dozen diseases, including whooping cough.
Children were to be vaccinated
Hills had recently seen her family doctor to set a “catch-up vaccination schedule” for her children. But before the immunization began, her youngest—a 10-month-old son—contracted the disease. She has been advised to give all the children antibiotics and keep them at home.
“It’s very sobering and it’s very raw because we had just made a more fully informed decision about vaccinations. We had just defected from the anti-vaccination camp,” said Hills.
‘It’s so ironic’
“It was too late. It’s so ironic and I’m not beating myself up for it. I just hope we can use this very painful experience to encourage other people like us to maybe re-examine the issue.”
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