yeah I know some people call it the 100 day cough, it just makes it sound unserious to me. Maybe it's more common in the UK though.
Also
Earlier this year the UKHSA warned that uptake of the maternal Whooping Cough vaccine had dropped to its lowest level in seven years.
Good, so yet again it's likely due to increased anti-vax sentiment in the west
I had pertussis about 10 years ago (as an adult). It was the most horrifying few weeks of my life. Waking up repeatedly at night feeling like I was drowning, frantically trying to inhale air, it was just awful.
Edit, ranting further: Parents or guardians who deliberately deny their children the proper vaccination (for reasons other than legitimate medical ones of course) rank pretty fucking high on my list of people who deserve gulag time. I'm a big outwardly-unemotional cis man, all that repressed-emotion-toxicity that I'm trying to shake off still pretty firmly attached. But if you want to instantly make me turn into a teary mess, show me a video of a tired, crying toddler with pertussis gasping for air.
Supposedly it’s actually down from 2019 so they’re hoping it’s just rebounding back to normal levels ”post-pandemic.” Which again shows how useful masks are at stopping all respiratory infectious disease, not just Covid. But I guess most of us would rather live with Victorian era diseases than be slightly inconvenienced in the interest of eradicating them.
It's like people started preventing sewage from getting into drinking water, found it prevented a lot of diseases, and then went right back to putting sewage in drinking water because it was cheaper not to.
"Now that everyone's gotten, and gotten over, their mild case of cholera, our immune systems have learned to fight it and we don't have to clean the water anymore. Just remember to wash your hands."
