Routine Vaccination Rates Decreasing

Three Things Thursday

Three Things Thursday highlights three things I am paying attention to as an epidemiologist each week.

This week all of my attention has focused on new reports documenting the drop in routine vaccinations among children in the US and worldwide. Here in the US — a record number of parents/guardians have opted for non-medical exemptions to routine vaccinations given to children before they enter kindergarten. And worldwide, vaccine coverage, specifically the measles vaccine, has decreased; resulting in an 18% increase in measles cases and a 43% increase in measles deaths in 2022 compared with 2021.

The reasons for the decline in vaccine coverage are a combination of lack of access to care during the pandemic (missed well-check visits for kids during lockdown), misinformation, and physicians/public health professionals who are no longer trusted.

According to the Washington Post —

“…even before the pandemic, more parents in an increasing number of states opted their children out of required immunizations because of vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccine sentiment, according to data and experts. The pandemic magnified those concerns because of controversies and politicization around coronavirus vaccines and school vaccine mandates.”

I also think that we (collectively) have a short-term memory — the generation of individuals with kids who need their childhood vaccinations do not know, have not experienced, and do not fear the diseases that vaccines prevent. We have little to no experience with polio, measles, mumps, diphtheria, pertussis, or rubella. We do not fear these diseases like our grandparents/parents did.

In order to have community/herd immunity — to prevent the spread of infectious diseases in our communities and to protect the most vulnerable — 95% of the population needs to be vaccinated against measles (2 shots). Currently, in the US fewer than 93% of kindergarteners have been vaccinated. We are primed for an outbreak of measles, like the one that occurred in Ohio earlier this year.

The combination of distrust, misinformation, disruption to care, and short-term memory has created a perfect storm — the uptake of childhood vaccines is decreasing and we are seeing a resurgence in vaccine-preventable diseases worldwide.

In light of these new reports, here are the three things you need to know about declining vaccination rates.

Hoping this post helps to educate and empower you
to be healthy and create healthy communities.

FIRST — the public health and medical communities are concerned about the decline in routine vaccinations because the diseases that are vaccine-preventable (measles, pertussis, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus) can cause life-long harm or death. These diseases are deadly — these diseases can kill people, paralyze them for life, or cause financial ruin.

We vaccinate individuals to prevent disease before it occurs because the benefit of the vaccine (and a mild side effect or two) FAR OUTWEIGHS the cost of getting one of these vaccine-preventable diseases.

Vaccines save lives.

In 2022 — 9,232,300 individuals worldwide were diagnosed with measles (an 18% increase) and 136,200 individuals died. Countless others (approximately one-third of cases) are permanently deaf and others are suffering from immune system amnesia.

Each of these cases and deaths are vaccine-preventable.

SECOND — if you, your children, your grandchildren, and your friends are up-to-date on your vaccines, thank you. Each vaccination you have received protects you against deadly diseases AND it helps to create community immunity.

We know that with declining vaccination rates outbreaks of disease are going to occur — individuals will become sick, communities will be impacted, economies will be ruined, and our healthcare system will be overwhelmed.

If you are vaccinated, you are protected. If your kids are vaccinated, they are protected.

And those of us who are vaccinated are all working to create community immunity, which will protect those among us — including infants, individuals with compromised immune systems, and the elderly — who either cannot get vaccinated (for medical reasons) or cannot mount an immune defense. They need our communities’ protection.

Thank you for getting vaccinated. And know that you are protected.

FINALLY — misinformation and mistrust are contributing to the declining vaccination rates. According to the Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy —

“Health misinformation is a serious threat to public health. It can cause confusion, sow mistrust, harm people’s health, and undermine public health efforts.”

It is going to take a community effort to slow the spread of misinformation about vaccines and health (I’m not even thinking about stopping it; that is just too big of a goal). But we can slow the spread.

In January — I’m going to kick off the new year with a series of posts about how to read the public health/medical literature, verify sources, and identify what is misinformation online. Stay tuned…

For now, we need to be slow to hit share on social media.

We need to stop amplifying the voices/content of those who are not sharing accurate information. We need to stop responding to their posts (no thumbs down, no comments). We need to slow their ability to be highlighted by social media algorithms.

Alternatively, we need to share posts (like this one — please!) that are evidence-based and written by someone with expertise and training.

We need to encourage our children, friends, and family to do the same.

As I have told my children —

You are responsible for working to end the epidemic of misinformation that is plaguing our society (do you see the pun there?!? see… I can be funny). You have the responsibility to check your sources, ask questions, and to never spread information you do not understand on social media or with your friends. Seek out the truth; share it with conviction.

Can we all commit to fighting against misinformation online? And helping our friends and families to understand the value and importance of vaccines?

Our individual health and the health of our communities are dependent on vaccines.

We need to fight misinformation and work toward increasing vaccination rates. Not allowing those rates to continue to drop and outbreaks to continue to occur.

Please share this post with your friends and family.

And commit to spending January 2024 with me so that you can learn more about public health/medical research and how to identify sources of misinformation.

Questions about the new reports? Or what a world with declining vaccination rates might mean to future generations, your small business, the economy, our schools, or our families? Please ask —