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That is a direct consequence of parents refusing to vaccinate their children.

Bullstuff!

The vaccine is not an immunization. It works 80% of the time, for 3-5 years. It confers some immunity some of the time, but not for long.

Every teenager and adult in this country, unless they have been revaccinated in the last 5 years, could easily contract whooping cough. So do NOT place blame on parents who didn't vaccinate their kids. There are more older people who have no immunity to pertussis than there are unvaccinated kids, by damn far.

Remember that freedom means you do not have to submit to vaccines, also.

The vaccine is not an immunization. It works 80% of the time, for 3-5 years. It confers some immunity some of the time, but not for long.
Every teenager and adult in this country, unless they have been revaccinated in the last 5 years, could easily contract whooping cough. So do NOT place blame on parents who didn't vaccinate their kids. There are more older people who have no immunity to pertussis than there are unvaccinated kids, by damn far.

Remember that freedom means you do not have to submit to vaccines, also.

The best information about the pertussis vaccine is here:

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/pertussis/default.htm#vacc

I have no idea how to make a link, but you can always copy and paste into the browser.

No vaccine is 100% effective, but the theory behind vaccinating as much of the population as possible for any specific disease is to reduce incidence to the point that even if one person does get sick despite vaccination, the chances of them coming into contact with other susceptible people are so low that an epidemic is effectively prevented.

It seems to be a fact of life that eliminating the spread of infectious disease has always taken priority over freedom. That's why Typhoid Mary was confined to a sanitorium from 1915 until her death in 1938, and why, prior to widespread vaccination, people with certain diseases were placed under quarantine in their houses, no contact with anyone allowed. If you send your kids to school, where they are in contact with other kids, the vaccination requirements are as much to protect the other kids as to protect yours. You simply do not have the freedom to place others' health or lives at jeapardy.