Friday, November 8, 2013

Jeff Gordon on The Sounds Of Pertussis and NASCAR

Posted By on Fri, Nov 8, 2013 at 4:00 PM


It’s not every day that I get to talk to a legendary NASCAR driver about whooping cough.

Four-time NASCAR Cup champion Jeff Gordon has teamed up with the March of DimesSounds Of Pertussis campaign to spread the word about the whooping cough epidemic. “When my wife Ingrid and I had our first child, we consulted our doctors and read many books so we can be prepared when she entered our lives. But there was something we forgot to do,” Gordon said in a phone interview.  They consulted with their physician and got the adult TDAP booster after Elaine's birth, so they were fully prepared when their son was born three years later.

“Well, 80% of the time (whooping cough) it’s coming from the adults,” Gordon said. Coincidentally, KVOA reported a whooping cough outbreak this morning in the Vail school district. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), America is experiencing one of the largest outbreaks of reported pertussis cases in approximately 50 years with more than 41,000 reported cases and 18 deaths in 2012. “There have been over 800 reported cases in Arizona alone,” Gordon said.

I closed my interview with a NASCAR question. I asked what he would say to someone that doesn’t consider what he does a sport. Gordon responded, “Well, I would certainly question what you consider a “sport” because I don't think there’s anything more competitive. It’s more of a team sport. There’s a lot of physical attributes involved while driving a race car 200 mph inches away from other competitors 38 weeks of the year.”

Click here for more information on how to avoid getting your young ones infected.

Tags: , , , ,