OPINION: State’s whooping cough outbreak was preventable

This editorial was published in the Yakima Herald-Republic.

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Last week’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the federal Department of Health and Human Services in the second Trump administration raised a lot of eyebrows.

And with Washington state seeing off-the-charts numbers of whooping cough (pertussis) cases in recent weeks, it also raises some serious local alarms.

Kennedy — the prodigal son of 1960s attorney general and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, and who harbors a bizarre fascination with dead animals — continues to stir needless fears by spreading false information about the safety of vaccines. If he’s confirmed to oversee America’s health, his baseless, crackpot takes on the effectiveness of treatments that have saved thousands of children’s lives for decades will carry a disastrous amount of influence over federal policies and funding. And no doubt he’ll work hard to steer parents away from vaccines that have long been proven indisputably safe and effective by competent and ethical scientists.

That would open a deadly Pandora’s box.

Diseases like whooping cough, mumps, measles and polio — which used to sicken, cripple or kill America’s kids — could again run rampant through communities like ours.

In fact, that’s what’s behind this current whooping cough outbreak in the Northwest. Blasts of misinformation have already infected the rationality of enough people that an easily prevented disease has now gained a foothold.

Astoundingly, kooks like Kennedy have convinced a surprising number of people that getting vaccinated is dangerous, and that truly harmful diseases are no big deal.

As of Nov. 2, Washington was on pace to ring up the worst year for whooping cough that we’ve seen in a decade, according to the state Department of Health. That’s 1,193 cases in 31 of Washington’s 39 counties, compared with where we stood at this time last year: just 51 cases statewide. Yakima County has recorded seven cases of the highly contagious disease, state records show.

It’s hard to understand why any parent would take the word of a podcaster, obscure website or TV talking head over the expertise of a doctor, but that’s where we are now. We’re right back where we were during the first presidential term of Donald Trump, whose mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in hundreds of thousands of American deaths — more than any other first-world nation on Earth.

As you might recall, he pooh-poohed the advice of medical professionals and suggested such reckless treatments as injecting bleach or horse medicine while bodies continued to stack up in refrigerated trailers.

Look for lots more of that kind of crazy-guy-on-the-bus thinking if RFK Jr. is confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Our advice is to seek out and follow health care professionals’ advice. It’s what sane, responsible and caring adults have done for quite some time now.

TNS