Florida cases of pertussis — also known as whooping cough — are at a five-year high.
The Florida Department of Health reported 1,454 cases in 2025 through Dec. 6, compared to 715 in all of 2024, according to the state’s Reportable Diseases Frequency Report. 369 of those cases were reported in the Greater Tampa Bay region.
Pediatricians say vaccine hesitancy is a big reason why, along with older adults who have compromised immune systems and haven’t had a booster shot in a while.
Mistrust in the vaccine
Dr. Marisa Couluris, division chief for the University of South Florida College of Medicine Pediatrics and Pediatric Pulmonology, said the rise in cases is directly related to fewer people getting vaccinated and getting booster shots, which is recommended about every 10 years for adults.
“I've been practicing for over 25 years. I have seen a few deaths of pertussis in my training, and it's so sad that we're back to seeing these cases when I haven't seen them in so many years,” she said
Dr. Jennifer Takagishi, the vice president of the Florida chapter of the Academy of Pediatrics and medical director of pediatrics at the University of South Florida, declined to give specific examples, but said many of the resources she once provided to patients can no longer be trusted.
She currently recommends patients read about whooping cough, statistics, vaccines, and related information through the American Academy of Pediatrics and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
"There's nothing that treats the cough. I don't have medications to treat it, and they're coughing for months, disturbing, unable to attend school. I see rib fractures from it. Pneumonia from it."Dr. Marisa Couluris, Division Chief for the University of South Florida College of Medicine Pediatrics and Pediatric Pulmonology.
Anti-vaccine sentiment stirred by lawmakers and politicians without education or experience in medical science, immunology, and virology has made many people distrustful of the preventative measure — despite overwhelming documentation that vaccines work to help prevent the spread of disease and serious illness.
Florida is currently holding workshops to discuss how to end school mandates for four vaccines and phase out the rest at a later time. The DTaP vaccine requirement, which helps prevent whooping cough, will require legislative approval to remove.
In early September, state Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo specifically questioned the whooping cough vaccine, calling it “an example of a vaccine that is ineffective. The data show that it's ineffective at preventing transmission."
As Politifact reported, that’s not really true. Vaccines don’t eliminate spread, but they do help lessen it. Outbreaks tend to happen in schools with a higher unvaccinated population, with children spreading the bacteria to noon-boosted adult family members and siblings too young to be fully vaccinated.
Vaccine history
The vaccine became widely available in the 1940s. But before that, as many as 200,000 U.S. children got sick with whooping cough each year, and about 9,000 died from the infection, according to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
By 1980, case levels had decreased by 99% from their pre-vaccine levels, according to the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida.
While no deaths were reported in Florida in 2025, it boasted a five-year high, with more than a thousand cases, and half of those affected were children between birth and four years old.
Read a brief history of vaccines from the World Health Organization.
Whooping cough ‘not just another cold’
Couluris said the respiratory illness, caused by bacteria, can be brutal.
"There's nothing that treats the cough. I don't have medications to treat it, and they're coughing for months, disturbing, unable to attend school. I see rib fractures from it. Pneumonia from it," Couluris said.
While not as common as in the past, babies and vulnerable people still die from it. Three unvaccinated infants in Kentucky died in 2025.
“Sadly, the best example I have is a two-week-old that we saw in my practice a few years ago who came in one day with cold-like symptoms, and by the next day was in respiratory distress, was admitted to the hospital to the pediatric ICU, had tubes put in both of his lungs and died anyway within a few days,” Takagishi said.
“The risks are really high. Death is really high risk,” Couluris said. “And so even if we save 1,2, 3 babies’ lives, it matters.”Dr. Marisa Couluris, Division Chief for the University of South Florida College of Medicine Pediatrics and Pediatric Pulmonology.
Couluris said infants and children impacted by the disease who don’t die may have lifelong complications.
“Babies that don't die from pertussis could have other complications of brain damage from a lack of oxygen to the brain. They could get severe lung damage and have prolonged pulmonary complications from an infection early on in life.”
Trying to gain back trust
People who were adults before the 1990s often recall bad side effects, such as high fevers or even seizures from the vaccine, which sometimes prompt them to skip it for their children and grandchildren.
Takagishi said that hasn’t been the case in about 30 years with an updated version of the shot.
“A few months ago, we had a family where the parent had received the earlier version, had a bad reaction, and didn't want their child to receive it, and we had to explain to them what the change that had occurred so that was safe for them,” Takagishi said.
Couluris said one-on-one conversations with patients and sharing credible data from sources that don’t manipulate numbers for political ends are needed to build trust in the vaccine.
“Families think they're doing the right thing, and so approaching the conversation with empathy, understanding that these families are getting information from many different places, and assuring that you have that trusting relationship, that you are up to date on all of the data, and that you listening…it's time consuming, but it's very important, where we have to ask: ‘Why do you have this hesitancy? Tell us the concerns,'" Couluris added.
She said physicians across the state and country get regular training on how to do this without expressing their anger or frustration.
“It's a lot about building the rapport and trust,” she said.Dr. Marisa Couluris, Division Chief for the University of South Florida College of Medicine Pediatrics and Pediatric Pulmonology.
Some pediatricians’ offices are now refusing to see children who don’t have legitimate medical reasons skip vaccination. Takagishi’s office is one of them.
“We can present the information and hope that they will continue to partner with us and learn... the moral question becomes, do I allow families who are potentially infected with vaccine-preventable diseases in our offices, where they can infect other people, right? I agree with that. I don't think that's fair to other families," Takagishi said.
