The Miss America winner was reputed to have become permanently deaf because of a bad DTP vaccine, but this story was totally false. Her deafness actually occurred after she contracted bacterial meningitis caused by Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), a bacterium for which a vaccine has since become available. Fortunately, the Hib vaccine has virtually eliminated Hib meningitis and its resulting deafness.
You can read more about vaccines and vaccine myths in my book God’s Design for the Highly Healthy Child.
Here are other blogs in this series you might find useful:

• Radio Listeners ‘Angry as Hornets’ About Dr. Walt’s Comments on Childhood Vaccination
• Doctors Debate Delayed Vaccine Schedule
• More on the Risks of Not Vaccinating Your Children
• Separating Swine Flu Myths From Facts
• Vaccine Myth #1: Vaccines Cause Autism
  • Special court rules against families who claim vaccines caused autism
• Vaccine Myth #2: Vaccines Don’t Work
• Vaccine Myth #3: Vaccines Aren’t Necessary
• Vaccine Myth #4: Vaccines Are Unsafe
• Vaccine Myth #5: Infants Are Too Young to Get Vaccinated
• Vaccine Myth #6: It’s Better to Be Naturally Infected Than Immunized
• Vaccine Myth #7: Vaccines Weaken the Immune System
• Vaccine Myth #8: A Preservative Contained in Many Vaccines Harms Children
• Vaccine Myth #9: Vaccine-Preventable Diseases Occur More Often in Vaccinated People Than in Unvaccinated People
• Vaccine Myth #10: Vaccines, If Administered during the First Two Years of Life, Can Cause Diabetes
• Vaccine Myth #11: The DTP Vaccine Caused Deafness in the 1994 Miss America Beauty Pageant Winner
• Vaccine Myth #12: The Polio Virus Vaccine Is Contaminated with a Virus That Causes Cancer
• Vaccine Myth #13: Vaccinations are made from aborted babies
  • Doctors and Families Asked to “Just Say no to New Aborted Fetal Vaccine