Whooping cough is back in Texas, and it’s not just making a little comeback — it’s quadrupled since last year and hit an 11-year high. The state’s up to 3,500 cases and counting, and health experts are basically waving red flags while Texans shrug and cough into each other’s faces. But sure, keep telling yourself it’s “just allergies.”
Doctors are saying the quiet part out loud: this was preventable. Vaccination rates have dropped, boosters are getting skipped, and the bacteria are throwing a Texas-sized hoedown in our airways. Public health folks are begging parents to update their kids’ shots and for grown-ups to stop pretending immunity is a one-and-done deal from the Reagan era.
Of course, the timing couldn’t be better — the holidays are coming. That means lots of family gatherings, baby kisses from Aunt Linda’s “seasonal cough,” and a statewide cough-off to see who can break a rib first. Meanwhile, babies too young for vaccines are at the highest risk, but hey, at least people can still argue about “personal freedom” between hacking fits.
Texas: where the whoop in “whooping cough” is just another way to say “yee-haw, science is optional.”
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/11/texas-pertussis-whooping-cough-disease-infectious/
