You "haven't heard of a case" because the numbers are way down, *thanks* to the vaccine. You should be grateful, but I doubt you will be. Perhaps others can learn.
Diphtheria is a horrible, horrible disease. It can create skin lesions and cause blindness, but the most life-threatening aspect is that it creates clinging adhesions (often described as "membrane") inside the throat that can suffocate a child. There are many stories of heroism pre-vaccine (Anne of Green Gables and Kipling for two) where a bystander cleared the membrane out of the throat and saved the child's life.
Tetanus is a very nasty disease, can cripple or kill. It is caused by a bacterium that is very common and lives in the soil, so anybody who works on a farm or gets their hands dirty in the yard is at risk. It causes uncontrollable muscle spasms that can break bones and tear ligaments and muscles. Ten percent mortality rate in the unvaccinated - and you suffer horribly with paralysis, heart complications, seizures . . . nobody in their right mind wants to risk it.
It's good that your brother and daughter recovered from whooping cough, but many did not. Before the vaccine, there were hundreds of thousands of cases in the U.S. - and "a few" thousand died. Others had permanent airway damage, seizures, and other consequences. Not insignificant if it happens to be your kid. Pertussis is less life-threatening in adults, but it is still painful and can lead to pneumonia. I know - because I had it (one of the annoying things about the adult TDaP vaccine is that the tetanus vaccine lasts longer than the pertussis, so you need to watch that. I didn't - but now I do.)
The pneumonia shots are mostly recommended for the elderly, who are most at risk. My kids never got a pneumonia shot.
There is no "A" vaccine in TDaP (that's why it's a little letter - it goes with Pertussis).
Thanks for the response. My solution was the same as my moms, keep the kids home and worry about it around age 5.
No daycare for my kids or any kids I knew of in the 60’s. If you needed someone to watch them, you had family, or a neighbor.
We were babysitters for the little ones beginning at 12. There were 7 of us kids. The oldest was only at this a short time, he was a jerk and my sister who was 2 years younger was better. We really did fine, my sister was fun but ruled with an iron fist. If you left the house without permission, she would tell. Which was worse than if we disobeyed parents. They enforced her rules more strictly, to give her the authority.
If she was mad at you, she wouldn’t tell Dad, she would hold it over your head. lol She was literally my Mom longer than my mom was, I miss her.