Are "chemtrails" spreading whooping cough in Croatia? No, that's not true: Croatia is facing a whooping cough epidemic due to falling vaccination rates that one health official says is due to online misinformation. Also, chemtrails don't exist, experts say.
The claim originated in a video (archived here) on TikTok on November 19, 2023, with the title (translated from Croatian to English by Lead Stories staff): "Had whooping cough?"
The video shows contrails from planes in the sky with the narration (as translated):
Whooping cough is being spread here. Look at the whooping cough, look. Spreading whooping cough.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Dec 4 22:49:34 2023 UTC)
Lead Stories has previously debunked claims that white lines of water vapor in the sky pose a risk to human health.
Professor Andrew Dessler, an expert in atmospheric chemistry and director of the Texas Center for Climate Studies at Texas A&M University, said in that previous article:
Contrails are condensation trails produced by the exhaust of aircraft engines. As jet fuel burns, it releases water vapor which, upon contact with the cold upper-atmosphere air, condenses into ice crystals, leaving behind visible trails.
'Chemtrails,' on the other hand, are part of a conspiracy theory suggesting that the trails left by aircraft are chemical or biological agents deliberately sprayed for harmful or undisclosed purposes.
Croatia is currently experiencing a whooping cough epidemic, a respiratory illness also called pertussis. Using World Health Organization Data, Lead Stories has calculated that, on average, Croatia reported 91 cases annually since the year 2000.
There has been a huge rise in cases this year, according to the Croatian Institute of Public Health. As of December 1, 2023, there have been 1,500 confirmed cases of whooping cough. The majority of cases have been detected in patients under age 19, mostly centered around the cities of Zagreb and Split.
While the whooping cough vaccine is mandatory for children in Croatia, inoculation rates have been falling, French news agency AFP reported via Yahoo News. Dr. Zeljka Karin, the head of the Split Regional Health Institute, was quoted as saying anti-vaccine messages are deterring parents from vaccinating their children despite a campaign by health authorities.
Such a post, with a whooping cough hashtag in Croatian (#hripavac), was on TikTok (archived here) on November 16, 2023. The screenshot said (as translated):
Do not test yourself! No more vaccinations ever, against anything! Do not believe in the served up lies!
