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Vaccinations went down, whooping cough cases went up [1]

['Rob Beschizza']

Date: 2025-12-18  

Pertussis, or whooping cough, is a brutal illness. I had it some 15 years ago and it had me choking and honking for weeks. It became rare in the U.S., thanks largely to vaccination against it, but rates are soaring again now the anti-vaxxers are in charge.

Whooping cough is preventable. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children get four doses of the DTaP vaccine — which protects against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis — before kindergarten. But an NBC News/Stanford University investigation has found that DTaP vaccination rates are plummeting across the country, as part of a larger, troubling trend of growing vaccine hesitancy that is fueling a resurgence of preventable diseases, including measles.

About 70% of the counties reporting data have dropped below the 95% vaccination rate recommended for community protection.

In Texas, there have been more than 3,500 cases through October — roughly four times as many as the same period last year, according to the state's health department. The state saw a surge at the end of last year, and experts said they expect to see the same this year.

First death of a baby from it in Oregon since 2012.

So far this year, Oregon has recorded 87 cases in infants younger than 12 months. Officials said 22 of those babies were hospitalized, and one infant died — the state's only pertussis-related death in 2025. Since babies can't be vaccinated until they reach 2 months, protection in the first months of life comes from antibodies inherited in the womb. To help protect babies, medical groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that pregnant people get the whooping cough vaccine known as Tdap — which also helps prevent tetanus and diphtheria — between weeks 27 and 36.

Mild cases may not be recognized for what they are: "A small study published in 1995 found that 20% of people who sought care at an emergency department for a cough lasting two to three weeks actually had pertussis."

Introduction of the vaccine dropped cases from around 200,000 a year to less than 5,000 a year in the U.S. by the 1980s. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report 26,632 cases of whooping cough so far in 2025.

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2025/12/18/vaccinations-went-down-whooping-cough-cases-went-up.html

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