whooping cough

As ACSH's Ana Dolaskie approaches the final weeks of pregnancy, she is making sure all her vaccinations are up-to-date. This includes the TDAP vaccine (Tetanus-Diphtheria-Pertussis) and influenza shot.
Every semester, I would start my lecture on Bordetella pertussis by playing the sound of a baby with whooping cough - loudly and for a long enough time that my students almost couldn't bear to listen to it anymore.
In 2012, Washington state had an outbreak of pertussis (whooping cough).
The news these past few weeks has been dominated with stories about vaccines: the