Add whooping cough to the list of preventable diseases that are back

While national attention is rightly focused on the alarming resurgence of measles, another dangerous and preventable disease is quietly surging to historic levels. Pertussis, or whooping cough, is now spreading at a rate the U.S. hasn’t seen since vaccines were introduced in 1948. ProPublica reports more than 7,000 cases across the country so far this year. In Washington state alone, the Department of Health has confirmed 807 cases as of April, compared to just 148 cases by the same time last year.

This is not a minor uptick. It’s a public health failure in motion. And it’s unfolding in the shadow of vaccine misinformation and dwindling immunization rates.

Unlike his predecessors, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has yet to launch a national immunization campaign despite the growing threat of vaccine-preventable diseases. In stark contrast, during the 1960s, the Centers for Disease Control and its partners led a coordinated nationwide effort to eradicate diseases like polio, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. The message was clear: Vaccinate everyone who is medically eligible.

To make the effort accessible and community-focused, public health officials introduced “Wellbee,” a cartoon mascot for wellness, who became a familiar face at schools and community events, championing vaccination as a public good. Today, as preventable diseases surge, Secretary Kennedy has ignored urgent calls from U.S. senators, who in a March 11 letter demanded he act swiftly to launch a national vaccination campaign. The silence is deafening.

RFK Jr. has not once uttered the words “pertussis” or “whooping cough” since his confirmation as Health and Human Services Secretary. The CDC’s pertussis surveillance website hasn’t been updated since January 13, 2025, weeks before he even assumed office. His silence is not just concerning. It’s dangerous.

As nurses, we know how critical it is for families to understand what’s at stake. Pertussis is not just a lingering, whooping cough. For infants and young children, especially those too young to be fully vaccinated, it can cause severe airway blockages, brain damage or death. Already this year, two infants in Louisiana have died from this preventable disease.

Children typically begin receiving the DTaP  or diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine at 2 months old, with a series of five shots completed by age 6. But that early protection fades. Adults, especially those who spend time around babies and vulnerable populations, need a Tdap booster every 10 years. Most don’t know this. That’s the cost of leadership that refuses to lead.

We are now living with the consequences of vaccine hesitancy, seeded by misinformation and nourished by inaction at the highest levels. Justin Gill, a doctor of nursing practice and president of the Washington State Nurses Association, remembers learning about pertussis and measles in nursing school. “We were told it was possible we’d never see these diseases in practice,” he recalls.

Fast forward a decade: Gill now sees pertussis cases weekly in the urgent care clinic in Everett where he works. Measles has returned to his own county. “The direct impact of misinformation at the top level of our government has its way of trickling down to clinical practice at the bedside,” Gill says. “Frontline health care workers are left to pick up the pieces of reckless and delayed policy decisions.”

Secretary Kennedy’s refusal to acknowledge a growing epidemic is not just a policy failure, it’s a betrayal of public trust. Americans deserve leadership grounded in science, not silence. Every delay in action, every omission in communication, puts more lives at risk. The time to act is not tomorrow. It’s now.