I can't take the whooping cough vaccine because I'm allergic to the tetnus part of that shot.

I think they might make just a pertussis vaccine without the tetanus portion.

I was exposed to pertussis this summer - one of the little darlings I taught in vacation bible school had it and the health department recommended we all contact our doctors. I wasn't overly concerned, but my last vaccination was 8 years before, so I was coming due, and to make matters worse, I was just about to be exposed to a lot of people.

Doctor: Well, I'm not overly concerned, but think I'd like you to come in for a booster.

Me: In the next 10 days, I'm serving at a funeral lunch for 100+, then running a Mary Kay booth at a street fair where I'll meet several hundred people, then getting on a plane to Dallas to spend a week in a convention center with about 8000 of my best girlfriends from all over the country for Mary Kay Seminar, just tell me I'm not going to be the next Typhoid Mary.

Doctor: Hurry in for that booster, and let's put you on a Z-Pak just to be safe.

Always ;-)
Hunzi
not a public health hazard that I know of