--- title: Whooping Cough Outbreak Strikes Undervaccinated Michigan County description: A major outbreak of whooping cough has struck a Michigan area where many people opted out of vaccinations against the disease. canonical: https://time.com/3630315/whooping-cough-michigan/ author: Noah Rayman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-11T18:11:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:13.430Z article:section: Health og:title: Whooping Cough Outbreak Strikes Undervaccinated Michigan County og:description: A major outbreak of whooping cough has struck a Michigan area where many people opted out of vaccinations against the disease. og:url: https://time.com/3630315/whooping-cough-michigan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Whooping Cough Outbreak Strikes Undervaccinated Michigan County twitter:description: A major outbreak of whooping cough has struck a Michigan area where many people opted out of vaccinations against the disease. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Whooping Cough Outbreak Strikes Undervaccinated Michigan County ## Video: Science Cop: How Anti-Vaxxers Put Everyone at Risk [Watch (HLS stream): Science Cop: How Anti-Vaxxers Put Everyone at Risk](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ai82XWJ8.m3u8) (2:06)  _Published 2014-09-24. TIME's Science Cop Jeffrey Kulger takes on the misinformation coming from opponents of childhood vaccinations_  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Dec 11, 2014 6:11 PM UTC  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Dec 11, 2014 6:11 PM UTC 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) 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) ```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":"2026-08-04T08:00:13.430Z","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"}}] ```