Whooping cough — also called pertussis — was first described during a 1578 epidemic in Paris, and up until the 1940s when the vaccine was developed, it was a major cause of infant death. This "cough of 100 days" affected more than 180,000 Americans in 1940, but the number plummeted to around 3,000 by 1991.

Since then, cases have crept back up; this year, almost 11,000 have been reported.

The uptick most likely comes from kids not getting their DTAP (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis) vaccine during the COVID-19 shutdown. The vaccine affords 98% protection from infection the first year and 71% effective protection five years after the last shot.

If older people get whooping cough, it can be equally serious. It's smart to have your DTAP updated.

The effectiveness of vaccines for preventing serious illness and death is clearly laid out in a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention paper. If you look at kids born between 1994 and 2023, you see that childhood vaccinations prevented more than 500 million cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations, and more than a million deaths.

And the vaccinations not only saved lives, they saved society $2.7 trillion in various expenses.

Imagine the budget deficit without childhood and flu vaccines, and the disability and death rates for kids.

Get with your pediatrician and talk to your primary care physician about what vaccines you need updated, or administered for the first time.