Whooping cough cases in Florida have soared this year, marking an 81% increase from 2024’s number.
As of Sept. 27, 2025, there have been 1,295 cases reported to the Florida Department of Health (DOH), compared to 715 cases for the entirety of 2024, according to the department’s Reportable Diseases Frequency Report.
This increase in whooping cough diagnoses has pediatricians worried for children who are too young to be vaccinated or unvaccinated children, who are the most at risk, especially at a time when state leaders have expressed their intent to walk back vaccination requirements in Florida.
“We are setting up a cesspool of germs for our kids to walk into,” Dr. Tara Williams, a general academic pediatrician with the Orlando College of Osteopathic Medicine, told the USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida.
Whooping cough, or pertussis, is a highly contagious respiratory infection, especially dangerous for infants and young children, who can suffer severe complications such as pneumonia, seizures, brain damage, or even death. Even in older children and adults, it can cause prolonged coughing fits that lead to rib fractures, vomiting, or disrupted sleep.
Rising reported cases are a concern because they signal waning immunity, gaps in vaccination coverage, or increased community spread, all of which put vulnerable populations at higher risk.
It’s pushed Florida pediatricians to attempt to create their own alert system to notify each other across the state when there is an infectious disease outbreak.
To prevent pertussis, there is a series of five vaccinations given from 2 months to the age of 4 to 6. Even those with one vaccine will still have partial protection, with less severe outcomes.
Dr. Mobeen Rathore, former president of the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the chief of infectious diseases and immunology for Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, said he has seen a rise in whooping cough in adolescents and young adults this year.
According to DOH data, 63% of cases are of children 0-9 years of age.
Currently there is no official recommendation for a repeat booster after 10 years old, Rathore said. However, if everyone gets immunized on the AAP schedule, there would be fewer cases of pertussis in all age groups and community-level transmission would be less likely.
“We are seeing a lot of people with pertussis who are exposing a lot of people in emergency departments and doctors’ offices,” he said. Those people may not get that sick, Rathore said, but they can spread it and give it to others, including infants and children.
From November 2023 to April 2024, the incidence rate among children younger than 1 was 1.52 per 100,000 population, according to DOH. From November 2024 to April 2025, however, that incidence rate increased to 9.1.
In 2024, Florida’s kindergarten vaccination rate fell to 90.6%, the lowest in over a decade. Nearly 91% may seem high, but for highly contagious diseases like measles, for example, public health experts recommend a vaccination rate of at least 95%.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, reported cases of whooping cough have been trending down since a peak in November 2024, but cases still remain elevated this year.
A request for comment about the increase in whooping cough cases is still pending with state health officials.
Florida pediatricians look to create their own outbreak alert system
In early September, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the state would work with the Legislature to repeal all vaccine requirements.
“Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” Ladapo said at a Sept. 3 press conference in Valrico, Hillsborough County.
Ladapo said DOH will repeal the rules within his purview that require vaccines, and that the governor and the Legislature will work to repeal the rest.
DOH has already begun the process of removing the Hepatitis B, varicella, Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib) and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines from the immunization requirements.
Currently, Florida requires children entering a public school in kindergarten through 12th grade to have at least four doses of the TDAP vaccine, though the state does allow for religious exemptions “if immunizations are in conflict with the religious tenets and practices of the child’s parent or guardian,” according to the state health department.
The TDAP vaccine protects against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, also known as whooping cough.
As of April 2025, according to DOH, the estimated prevalence of religious exemptions among children age 5-17 years old is 6.39%. That number is likely higher, however, as parents can exempt information from the Florida SHOTS program. It’s the “free, secure, statewide online immunization information system to help providers manage immunization records.”
The state also used to send out e-mail alerts when there was an outbreak of an infectious disease, Williams said, but that stopped approximately two years ago. “We no longer know what’s going on,” she said. “We are kept in the dark and there is no information.”
Now, Florida pediatricians are looking to create a way to communicate or make their own alert system about infectious disease outbreaks that impact children so they can be on the lookout to prevent a delay in diagnosis and community spread.
“I am afraid it’s going to take the return of children dying of polio, dying of diphtheria, dying of complications before we have people lining up once again to get vaccines,” Williams said.
Ana Goñi-Lessan, state watchdog reporter for the USA TODAY Network – Florida, can be reached at agonilessan@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Whooping cough cases soar in Florida as pediatricians worry about vaccine rollback
Reporting by Ana Goñi-Lessan, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
