VANCOUVER, Wash. — The Thanksgiving holiday, for some, may be conjuring up bleak memories of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only was it harder to see loved ones during the thick of the outbreak, but it made us aware — perhaps for the first time — that gatherings of families and friends carried the risk of spreading potentially deadly disease to more vulnerable people.
COVID-19 is still with us, but vaccines are at least widely available. At the same time, dissent that came to a head during the pandemic concerning perceptions of vaccine safety is being felt more keenly now than ever.
Pertussis, more commonly known as whooping cough, is a respiratory infection that spreads easily. It starts with symptoms that seem like a cold: sneezing, runny nose, low-grade fever and a mild cough. But within two weeks it can cause fits of coughing so severe as to make it hard to catch your breath — accompanied by the characteristic “whooping” sound that earned the bacterial infection its nickname…