[blueash]

I see this new thread and it seems to be a reply to a posting asking about why you had told people to stay up to date including getting a whooping cough booster. I actually was surprised you didn't respond on the thread to that comment.

You are 100% correct. Whooping cough is almost never a serious disease in adults or older children but it can and does kill infants. The initial series of three doses usually given at 2, 4, and 6 months does not provide significant protection until the third dose so all those infants are not protected even though they are being immunized. Infants depend on not being exposed to be safe. Whooping cough is very contagious. In adults you will get a prolonged cough which most likely will be diagnosed as "bronchitis" or "sinus" as adult physicians will tell you they have never seen whooping cough. Well it has seen them.

In this country and around the world we immunize people to protect other people as much or more than to protect the vaccine recipient. The rubella vaccine is given to children to protect pregnant women from contracting the disease. Rubella itself except to a fetus is nearly harmless. But everyone, even boys, get vaccinated to eliminate wild circulation of the virus. Millions of shots to prevent a few thousand damaged newborns. Chicken pox is nearly harmless but about 1/1000 healthy people get very ill. And those with immune issues can die. How horrible to have your child survive leukemia then die of chicken pox because you chose not to get her immunized.

In public health while the concern is on the individual it is also strongly focused on the community, on the general well being. It is as much about You as about Me. In public health it really does take a village.