Your anecdote about your kids is obviously of great personal interest to yourself, but completely irrelevant in evaluating the effectiveness or value of population based vaccination programs. Since when did having a cough = whooping cough? A vaccination against pertussis will not stop anyone getting colds, flus, sniffles, headaches, rashes, insomnia or any other illness that isn't caused by pertussis. A vaccine isn't some kind of magic.
