'We're Going Backward' With Whooping Cough

Whooping cough is making a strong comeback in the US, with cases already doubling numbers at the same time last year amid rising concerns over falling childhood vaccination rates. So far in 2025, more than 8,000 cases have been logged, according to preliminary data from the CDC. That figure is more than twice the number of cases seen at this point in 2024, per the AP. Bloomberg notes this rivals the last big outbreak in 2012 and puts us on track "for the worst US outbreak in 70 years."

Pennsylvania has recorded 207 whooping cough cases in 2025, while Michigan has seen 516 cases so far this year and had a total of 2,081 cases in 2024. In the past six months, at least five people have died, including two infants in Louisiana. Outbreaks are occurring in populated areas like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and in middle and high schools and colleges. Whooping cough, or pertussis, spreads through respiratory droplets when people cough, sneeze, or breathe near others. Symptoms start like a cold but progress to a severe cough with a distinctive "whoop" sound. The illness peaks every two to five years and is treated with antibiotics. It's most dangerous for infants, especially before they receive their first vaccine dose.

The falling vaccination rates, partly spurred by anti-vaccine sentiment, have public health experts especially concerned. The CDC states that 94.6% of Pennsylvania's kindergarteners are vaccinated, citing state health stats. However, vaccination rates in some Michigan schools are as low as 30%, says Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, the state's chief medical executive. "You're already now seeing children die [of whooping cough] in states where you haven't had a child death in years," Paul Offit, an infectious diseases physician at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, tells the Washington Post. "For the same reasons we're going backward with measles, we're going backward with pertussis." (ProPublica recently took a closer look at the rising cases of whooping cough.) (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)