It’s not news that we need a better pertussis vaccine. Scientists have known for several years that protection against whooping cough wanes much faster than expected in children and adolescents. A cursory skim of cases over the past century makes it clear that the increase in cases beginning in the early 2000s correlates with children who received the current vaccine (introduced in the early 90s) reaching school-age. Increases in outbreaks have also resulted from clustering of vaccine refusers and improvements in testing and detection. However, replacing the older whole-cell vaccine—which could cause frightening fever-induced seizures but with no long-term effect—with an acellular vaccine shoulders the lion’s share of blame for increasing cases.
