#phi plait

[aimlessinspace]

VOYAGER 1 TURNS ON ITS THRUSTERS AFTER 37 YEARS IN THE COLD AND DARK

And they worked! After 37 years, the TCM thrusters did their job. This means the small amount of fuel onboard will last that much longer, extending the mission lifetime by a few years. Amazing.

[captainscience-blog]

This graph shows how many more cases of whooping cough there is so far this year in Washington DC. In Australia where I live there are similarly a whooping cough epidemic.

Why would this be? Well, it so happens that the antivax movement is quite strong in Washington state, and it also so happens that parents are choosing not to vaccinate their children in higher numbers there than the rest of the nation.

There may be other factors, but it’s clear that people who don’t vaccinate are at least partially to blame for this. Maybe it’s due to religious reasons, or the large number of antivaxxers who still blame autism on vaccines, when we know for sure that’s not the case. Either way, when vaccine rates get too low, herd immunity is compromised, and we see more pertussis cases, even among those who are vaccinated.

Pertussis is a terrible, terrible disease. It puts infants at grave risk of dying, and eight infants so far this year have been killed by pertussis in the US. Even if it doesn’t kill them, it’s a horrible thing to put them through.

Vaccines save lives. Talk to your board-certified doctor and find out if you need one, or a booster. I did, and my whole family is up-to-date with their vaccinations. I refuse to be a part of spreading a disease that can kill anyone, let alone babies, and I refuse to be silent about it.

And so did I and my whole family. Stop the epidemic. Get vaccinated.

{This post is from Phil Plait's awesome blog Bad Astronomy}