--- description: A major outbreak of whooping cough has struck a Michigan area where many people opted out of vaccinations against the disease. title: Whooping Cough Outbreak Strikes Undervaccinated Michigan County image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Health](/section/health/) ## Health Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Infectious Disease](/tag/infectious-disease/) ## Infectious Disease Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Whooping Cough Outbreak Strikes Undervaccinated Michigan County  by [Noah Rayman](/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 11, 2014 6:11 PM CUT  by [Noah Rayman](/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 11, 2014 6:11 PM CUT A major outbreak of whooping cough has struck a Michigan area where [many people opted out of vaccinations](http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/12/traverse%5Fcity%5Fwhooping%5Fcough%5Fo.html "undefined") against the disease. At a single school in Grand Traverse County, which has the state’s highest rates of parents choosing not have their children vaccinated, there have been 151 confirmed and probable cases of whooping cough, reports local news outlet MLive.com. “Nobody likes to be the person who says, ‘I told you so,’ but what’s unfolding now is exactly the scenario feared by those worried about the region’s low immunization numbers,” Bradley Goodwin, the president of the Grand Traverse County Medical Society, said. Cases of whooping cough have been reported at more than 14 school buildings in the area, which has also reported several cases of the highly contagious measles. _Read more at_ [_MLive.com_](http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/12/traverse%5Fcity%5Fwhooping%5Fcough%5Fo.html "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3630315/whooping-cough-michigan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3630315/whooping-cough-michigan/"},"headline":"Whooping Cough Outbreak Strikes Undervaccinated Michigan County","datePublished":"2014-12-11T18:11:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:47:09.826Z","description":"Grand Traverse County has the state’s highest rates of parents choosing not have their children vaccinated","url":"https://time.com/3630315/whooping-cough-michigan/","keywords":["Infectious Disease","medicine","Michigan","Vaccines"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Noah Rayman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/infectious-disease/","name":"Infectious Disease"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3630315/whooping-cough-michigan/","name":"Whooping Cough Outbreak Strikes Undervaccinated Michigan County"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Science Cop: How Anti-Vaxxers Put Everyone at Risk","description":"TIME's Science Cop Jeffrey Kulger takes on the misinformation coming from opponents of childhood vaccinations","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ai82XWJ8/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-09-24T20:18:23.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ai82XWJ8.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3630315/whooping-cough-michigan/","duration":"PT2M6S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3630315/whooping-cough-michigan/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```