Grieving family’s anti-vax torment

A woman whose infant daughter died from whooping cough has shared harrowing details of the war of misinformation the anti-vaxxer movement waged on her family, in a new documentary on Sky News.

Toni McCaffery with baby Dana.

A woman whose infant daughter died from whooping cough has shared harrowing details of the war of misinformation the anti-vaxxer movement waged on her family, in a new documentary on Sky News.

Toni and Dave McCaffery who lost their baby Dana at just four weeks old described the torrent of “nasty” letters and social media comments they received after they shared their story to raise awareness.

The family lived in the Byron Shire, in northern NSW, a community known for having one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country. “Suddenly we were put in this awful position that … I had to prove that the disease killed my child,” Ms McCaffery told Sky News. “They were ­demanding autopsy records. These people rang the hospital demanding her medical records. They wanted proof that it had actually happened.”

Dana contracted the infection when she was just a week old and too young to be vaccinated.

The family described how the illness, which began with a persistent cough, slowly shut down Dana’s organs.

“She just coughed and coughed and coughed and coughed. It went on for minutes. Until she went purple-blue and then she just stopped breathing in my arms,” Ms McCaffery said.

Paediatrician Margie Danchin said the rise in anti-vax ­ideologies was due to the compelling nature of the conspiracy narrative. “We as healthcare providers need to be very clear and advocate strongly for vaccines and to counteract a lot of these conspiracy theories and anti-vaccination views as they arise,” Associate Professor Danchin said. “The problem with pro-vaccine views is that they often appear quite vanilla, like we’re repeating the same message over and over again.”

Big Shots: Anti-Vaxxers ­Exposed will air again on Sky News at 8pm on February 27.