GSK Settled  False Advertising Case About “Big Bad Wolf” Pertussis Vaccine Ads. CNN and the CDC Are Still Selling the Same Claim

Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) helped support a lawsuit that reached a settlement in a case against GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) alleging false advertising through its “Big Bad Cough” campaign, which encouraged grandparents to get the pertussis vaccine. The ad showed a grandparent transforming into a big bad wolf character, like in “Little Red Riding Hood,” because of a whooping cough infection while being unvaccinated.

ICAN’s lead attorney, Aaron Siri, and his firm, Siri & Glimstad, argued that the advertisement’s premise is false. The lawsuit references research from the FDA and premier universities that concluded Boostrix, the GSK Tdap vaccine in the advertisement, “creates a defective form of immunity to pertussis in the person receiving the product. This defective immunity actually renders them susceptible to becoming repeatedly infected with pertussis, potentially every month, without knowing they are infected.”

A 2019 study concluded that acellular pertussis vaccines provide only systemic immune responses, while natural immunity evokes both mucosal and systemic immune responses. “As B. pertussis is a mucosal pathogen and only exceptionally causes infection outside the respiratory tract, this difference is of particular importance in pertussis control,” the authors wrote. “Mucosal immunity is essential to prevent colonization and transmission of B. pertussis organisms. Consequently, preventive measures such as aPVs that do not induce a valid mucosal response can prevent disease but cannot avoid infection and transmission.”

Despite the evidence and the court settlement regarding the “Big Bad Cough” campaign, CNN continues to send that message to grandparents. The news outlet published an article on November 4 stating, “Anyone who is around a newborn should be up to date on all routine vaccines, especially the whooping cough vaccine, known as tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, or Tdap…” and references the CDC as its primary source.

The CDC recommends that anyone who will be around a baby be up to date on the pertussis, or whooping cough, vaccine. However, the CDC also publishes the “Pink Book,” which explains that individuals previously vaccinated against pertussis may still be asymptomatically infected and may still transmit the disease.

The GSK advertisement started running in 2015 and ran until soon after the lawsuit was filed in May 2020. In addition to the 2019 study, a 2014 FDA baboon study concluded that acellular pertussis vaccines protect against severe disease, but not against colonization or transmission. The protective element is only for the individual receiving the vaccine.

CNN’s article didn’t report these details from the research studies or the statements in the CDC’s Pink Book that contradict the agency’s recommendation. The article includes a quote from Dr. Dhaval Desai, a dual board-certified internal medicine and pediatrics physician at The Atlanta Internists.

“Pertussis is whooping cough,” Desai said. “It is a debilitating cough disease. We see babies stop breathing. It is a very frightening thing. Most recover from it, but it is something we want to prevent. So Tdap would be one of my non-negotiables for a new grandparent.”

Jacqueline Howard, the CNN author, adds details about the severity of the whooping cough. She calls it “incredibly dangerous” and says, “It triggers violent, uncontrollable coughing fits that make it hard to even catch a breath. Beyond that, severe infection can lead to complications like pneumonia, convulsions, permanent brain damage or death.”

Siri & Glimstad leaned on the scientific research in the lawsuit and argued that vaccinated grandparents are at a higher risk of transmitting pertussis to vulnerable babies than unvaccinated individuals.

“[P]eople receiving Boostrix can repeatedly become infected with and are capable of transmitting pertussis while remaining asymptomatic (presenting no symptoms) or paucisymptomatic (presenting few symptoms),” the lawsuit says. “On the other hand, individuals who have not received this product may become infected with the pertussis bacteria, have symptoms, and as a result, know they are sick and hence should stay away from others, and will thereafter have immunity that prevents them from becoming re-infected with pertussis for many years.”

Siri & Glimstad alleged that, “GSK’s Big Bad Cough campaign led viewers to believe that individuals receiving Boostrix would be less likely to transmit pertussis. Nevertheless, in reality, those receiving this product become more likely to asymptomatically transmit pertussis.”

CNN also quotes Dr. Michael Warren, chief medical and health officer at the maternal and infant health nonprofit March of Dimes. However, CNN failed to mention that Sanofi, the maker of the TDaP vaccine Adacel, partnered with March of Dimes in 2009 for the “Sounds of Pertussis” campaign encouraging adults to get vaccinated against pertussis to minimize spread of the disease. Dr. Warren told CNN that developing babies “rely on all of us around them to be vaccinated to help keep infectious diseases away.”

There are over 56,000 adverse event reports in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) for pertussis-related vaccines from 2015-2025, including 308 deaths. A research paper published in the Journal of Pediatrics in 2019 evaluated VAERS reports for DTaP vaccines from 1991 through 2016, and 11% of the 50,000+ reports were classified as serious. VAERS is a passive vaccine surveillance system where reported cases are not evaluated for causality, but a Harvard Pilgrim report concluded fewer than 1% of all vaccine adverse events are reported. The majority of those reports are minor.

Bioengineer.org published an article calling pertussis “one of the most stubborn vaccine-preventable respiratory diseases.” The CDC defines a vaccine-preventable illness as one where disease and death can be reduced to low levels locally. Scientific research has not demonstrated that the currently used pertussis vaccines can prevent disease transmission. Another recent news publication includes statements from doctors stating the vaccine “prevents 7 out of 10 cases in the first year,” but does not mention that those are symptomatic cases and individuals who are asymptomatic with pertussis can still spread the illness.