# We Just Got our Whooping Cough Booster Shots! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 23, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057 "2014-12-23T20:53:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057/1 "2014-12-23T20:53:06Z")
And my arm kind of hurts. ☹ We moved to a place that has a deplorable vaccination rate this summer, my husband has asthma, and he works with an idiot who has four unvaccinated kids (including a newborn), so off we went to the public health nurse and got our adult boosters for whooping cough. Up your herd immunity! I don’t know if this is mundane or pointless, but I felt like sharing it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057/2 "2014-12-23T20:58:15Z")
I’ve had the TDaP or DTaP or TDP whatever it’s called now at least twice, in the last ten years. Probably three times. I think I had one in college, and one when I got a new GP when I got my first job here, and yet another when I let it slip to that GP that my husband and I were ready to procreate. It’s a pretty easy little jab, I always thought. Not worse than most flu shots. Much better than an MMR booster. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057/3 "2014-12-23T22:05:27Z")
You can officially come visit my house now so there’s that. I’d hand out something special when you get a vax. Little kids can get lolly pops and candy. Adults should get something more appropriate like a tee shirt and maybe someone throwing roses wherever they walk. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057/4 "2014-12-23T22:18:49Z")
Ugh, I hated that damn shot. It left me sore for days. Wasn’t as painful as the Anthrax vaccine, nor was it as annoying as the Smallpox one. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057/5 "2014-12-23T22:45:26Z")
I’ve had whooping cough. Trust me, you’d rather have the pain from the shot. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057/6 "2014-12-23T22:52:40Z")
Good for you! My Small Boy had what was almost certainly whooping cough earlier this year (despite being all vaxxed up - you can still hit the jackpot) and it was no fun at all. In a totally separate incident (separate because she got it in England), so did my mum, we think. There’s more whooping cough round than people realise, because not all doctors actually do the test and report the incident. We just got “here’s some antibiotics, if it’s that, they’ll fix it”, which it did. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057/7 "2014-12-23T23:10:28Z")
I got a booster a couple of weeks ago so I could visit the family that now includes a new baby. It was hard to find any vaccine due to a recent whooping cough epidemic. A couple of facts I discovered while chasing around: the vaccine is less effective than it used to be as the bacteria has mutated and the new vaccines aren’t as effective anyway the vaccination doesn’t last very long you aren’t vaccinated at all until at least two weeks after the shot and due to the change in the schedule of free shots for kids in NSW Australia lots of 3 year olds are now getting it. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057/8 "2014-12-23T23:47:04Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > I’ve had whooping cough. Trust me, you’d rather have the pain from the shot. A friend of mine had it. He ended up missing something like an entire quarter or semester of grade school because of it. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057/9 "2014-12-24T01:07:10Z")
We really don’t want to get whooping cough - as I said in my OP, my husband has asthma and whooping cough is likely to be very hard on him, and I don’t want to get it either, even with healthy lungs. I’m sorry to hear the vaccination is getting less effective - dang. Oh well - boosted is better than not boosted still, I figure. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057/10 "2014-12-24T01:59:41Z")
I got my latest TDaP booster in 2008. Yay, me! I think that means I due again in 2018. Unless, of course, I get some sort of injury that calls for another tetanus booster but I try to avoid those. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057/11 "2014-12-24T02:04:41Z")
You can blame the anti-vax nuts in part for the lack of efficacy. As Seth Mnookin explains, they overreacted to the old whole cell’s tendency to cause a higher rate of side effects and pushed for a new vaccine that is less efficacious. > [@](#): > > [http://blogs.plos.org/thepanicvirus/2012/09/13/the-whole-cell-pertussis-vaccine-media-malpractice-and-the-long-term-effects-of-avoiding-difficult-conversations/](http://blogs.plos.org/thepanicvirus/2012/09/13/the-whole-cell-pertussis-vaccine-media-malpractice-and-the-long-term-effects-of-avoiding-difficult-conversations/) > > For the past several years, the United States has had a series of unusually robust pertussis outbreaks. (Typically, outbreaks go in multi-year cycles, with peaks and troughs. That hasn’t been happening as of late: There were 27,550 cases in 2010, and there have already been 26,146 so far this year.) One theory has been that the acellular vaccine doesn’t confer as lengthy immunity as the whole-cell vaccine did — and a new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine (abstract, PDF) provides strong evidence that that is, indeed, the case. “[O]ur evaluation of data from a large pertussis outbreak in California [in 2010],” the authors write, “showed that protection from disease after a fifth dose of DTaP among children who had received only DTaP vaccines was relatively short-lived and waned substantially each year. Our findings highlight the need to develop new pertussis-containing vaccines that will provide long-lasting immunity.” > > There are those who would point out that we actually know of a pertussis-containing vaccine that provides long-lasting immunity — but the chances of returning to the whole-cell DPT vaccine are next to nil. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057/12 "2014-12-24T05:59:45Z")
Dammit - if you gave me a choice of getting a not-so-great vaccine versus the older, better one, I’d take the better one any time. I really hate it when good medicine/science bows to the vocal idiots in the crowd. ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057/13 "2014-12-24T07:39:26Z")
I got my TDaP ( **T** etanus, **D** iptheria, **a** nd **P** ertussis) in the summer of 2013 because it was one of the required boosters for the respiratory program at school. My doctor recommended getting titers of the rest of my childhood vaccinations and I found out that my measles vaccination was no longer effective so I got that one boostered too. I highly recommend getting titers done on all your vaccinations just to be on the safe side. It’s nice to have the peace of mind from knowing you’re as protected as you can be (especially considering how many nasty things I’ve had coughed in my face in the last year and a half of school). ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057/14 "2014-12-24T11:51:29Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > I’ve had whooping cough. Trust me, you’d rather have the pain from the shot. I almost died from it, thankfully I was young enough that I don’t remember a thing about it. I do remember that doing a whoop wheeze was enough to panic my mom when I was a kid, she was in horror of me ending up almost dying again. As it was, I ended up with lung issues, and colds roll into pneumonia in me with very little encouragement. With mobility issues, I am very careful to do deep breathing exercises a couple times a day to clear my lungs all the way down. On bad body days I get stuck flat in bed which is not good for lungs! And I am in favor of forcibly vaccinating everybody who is not allergic. Fuck religion, that is a fucking dumb excuse. God/diety of your choice isn’t stepping up and magically healing the sick on demand so take precautions to create herd immunity. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057/15 "2014-12-24T17:49:28Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > \ > > And I am in favor of forcibly vaccinating everybody who is not allergic. Fuck religion, that is a fucking dumb excuse. God/diety of your choice isn’t stepping up and magically healing the sick on demand so take precautions to create herd immunity. I’m turning this idea over in my mind; I’m for personal liberty, but sometimes societal responsibility trumps personal liberty, and this might be one of those times. On the other hand, if we force vaccinations, what’s the next thing we force on people for their own good? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057/16 "2014-12-24T20:19:26Z")
Funny thing - for decades the Amish were against vaccinations but I’ve heard they’ve recently been convinced using a “social responsibility” argument: it’s not nice to spread diseases to your neighbors. I, too, am in favor of making vaccinations mandatory unless medically contra-indicated (there are other categories besides allergies that shouldn’t be vaccinated, either due to possible complications or because it would be ineffective). The only vaccination I don’t get is the flu shot - because I’m allergic to that. I get as many of the rest as I can. I’d rather have a sore arm or feel vaguely bleh for a few days than actually get sick. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057/17 "2014-12-24T20:29:46Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > On the other hand, if we force vaccinations, what’s the next thing we force on people for their own good? How about letting such things get debated on their own merits as they arise? Not everything has to be the tip of a slippery slope. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057/18 "2014-12-24T20:31:58Z")
The things I learn here. I never knew before reading this thread that whooping cough was something adults got - I thought it was a kid thing. In my defense I don’t have kids so really haven’t given it much thought. IIRC, any news stories I read about it tend to focus on kids and outbreaks at schools. Michigan has a [dismally low childhood vaccination rate](http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/12/michigan_vaccinations_risk_imm.html#incart_special-report) and it’s been in the news a lot recently. Apparently Michigan makes it very easy for parents to opt-out of all vaccinations for their children for whatever reason they feel like. I am absolutely not anti-vaccinations but like **Cat Whisperer,** I’m a little squishy on whether they should be federal or state-mandated for everybody, excluding medical waivers. (I understand this is not the popular view here!) I’m more inclined to agree that children should be vaccinated for everything that may put them and the community at risk. Adults, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057/19 "2014-12-25T00:53:57Z")
The problem is that unvaccinated adults also put the community at risk. In the old days, the childhood vaccinations used to last a lifetime because occasional contact with kids who got the diseases acted as boosters to those shots. We’ve since learned that when we _really_ get herd immunity going then the vaccines wear off in about 10 years… leaving the adults vulnerable to what used to be childhood illnesses. Some of these are actually _more_ hazardous to adults than children. Polio, for instance, is more hazardous the later in life you contract it. So is chicken pox. Shingles started becoming more common because people who had had chicken pox weren’t get their “contact boosters”, the natural immunity falls, and the virus comes back as shingles. So now people get shingles vaccines. Whooping cough outbreaks occur in adults as well as children, and adults with whooping cough are just as contagious as the kids. One big problem: adults are less likely to stay at home when they have it. Adults are also currently the leading cause of such infections in infants in the US, and infants are the group most likely to die from whooping cough. Another problem with whooping cough in adults is that adults almost never “whoop”, which makes diagnosis more likely to be missed. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057/20 "2014-12-25T02:12:56Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > The problem is that unvaccinated adults also put the community at risk. > > In the old days, the childhood vaccinations used to last a lifetime because occasional contact with kids who got the diseases acted as boosters to those shots. Not quite. It depends on the vaccine. Three doses of the modern measles vaccine, for example, will give life long immunity to over 99% of all who get them. You don’t ever have to get another MMR unless titers show it may be advisable. The same is true for the polio vaccine. The really troublesome vaccine right now is the pertussis as it is probably simply isn’t effective enough. But many other vaccines are just as effective as they ever were. The real issue is mostly lack of access to vaccines in much of the developing world. For example, over 700,000 people die each year from hep b, a virus that is largely preventable by a vaccine. That vaccine is about 95% effective and will confer lifelong immunity for those lucky enough to have access to it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-just-got-our-whooping-cough-booster-shots/708057.md?page=2)