Let's Talk About Vaccine Preventable Disease Deaths

Why are so many kids once again dying with measles, Hib, pertussis, rotavirus, and chicken pox?

With news of two unvaccinated children dying with measles getting so much media attention, you have to wonder why no one knows about all the kids who died with Hib, pertussis, chicken pox, or pneumococcal disease the last few years…

Is 16 deaths a lot? Considering that there were ‘only’ three deaths in 2023 and that there should be none, yeah, 16 pertussis deaths is a lot!

After all, they are all vaccine preventable disease too.

Let's Talk About Vaccine Preventable Disease Deaths

OK, the DTaP and Tdap vaccines aren’t perfect when it comes to preventing pertussis, but you know what they are pretty perfect at?

Preventing your child from dying with pertussis! (Of course, it also keeps them safe from tetanus and diphtheria too!)

Studies have shown that babies who die with pertussis - and many of these deaths were in babies - were unvaccinated, including that they weren’t protected by a maternal dose of Tdap. So your older child might cough for a bit if their immunity wanes, but at least you don’t have to be concerned that they are going to die if they get sick with pertussis.

But it’s not just pertussis…

You know a lot of kids die when they get sick with the flu each year, right?

In the year that RFK, Jr tried to take away our kids’ flu vaccines, at least 174 kids died because they were sick with the flu. Most were unvaccinated and many were previously healthy.

But did you know that almost all of them are unvaccinated and many were previously healthy?

What else?

Kids are once again dying with Haemophilus influenzae type b infections when they develop epiglottitis, meningitis, pneumonia, and/or septicemia.

Infections that are typically prevented with the Hib vaccine.

Kids are also dying with Streptococcal pneumonia infections when they develop pneumonia, meningitis, or septicemia.

Infections that are prevented with the Prevnar or Vaxneuvance vaccines.

Rotavirus infections cause vomiting and severe and frequent watery diarrhea for 3 to 8 days and can lead to dehydration.

Kids are even dying with rotavirus!

Did you even know your child could die if they got sick with rotavirus?

How about tetanus neonatorum?

You probably didn’t even know that was a thing, did you?

But you did know that chicken pox was deadly though, right?

In addition to reducing your risk of getting chicken pox, the chicken pox vaccines can likely reduce your later risk of developing shingles.

And you knew that children could die if their mothers get rubella during the pregnancy, didn’t you?

That’s the other big reason we recommend that everyone get an MMR vaccine.

The ‘R’ protects against rubella, mostly so that babies don’t develop congenital rubella syndrome and life-threatening complications.

Does everyone realize how many people are still dying with congenital rubella syndrome?

And let’s not forget the SSPE deaths, a late complication of measles.

There have been at least eleven SSPE deaths in recent years.

Hopefully you understand that the reason we encourage parents to vaccinate and protect their kids is because these are deadly diseases, not because of some Pharma conspiracy.

The only conspiracies are coming from anti-vaccine influencers who make money spreading misinformation and selling supplements, books, and seminar tickets.

Know that they also get a lot of money from the social media views their propaganda generates.

Remember that the next time you watch or share one of their scare videos!

More on Vaccine Preventable Disease Deaths

• You Are Far More Likely to Die From the Disease Than the Vaccine That You Skipped

• What We Know About the Hospitalized Measles Patients in the Texas Outbreak

• Is the Measles Death Rate in Children Only 1 in 106 Million?

• How Many Babies Who Skipped Their vitamin K Shot Have Died?

• What Is the Death Rate for Babies From Hepatitis B?

• Hospitals See Diseases Resurge as Vaccinations Decline

• 2025 Pertussis surveillance report. https://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/media/pdfs/2025/01/pertuss-surv-report-2024_PROVISIONAL-508.pdf

• CDC Wonder. Provisional Mortality Statistics, 2018 through Last Week Results.

• What Would a World Without Vaccines Look Like?

• Increases in vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks threaten years of progress

• Global immunization efforts have saved at least 154 million lives over the past 50 years