{"id":10494,"date":"2025-10-08T18:02:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T23:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=10494"},"modified":"2025-10-08T18:02:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T23:02:18","slug":"even-small-drops-in-vaccination-rates-for-us-children-can-lead-to-disease-outbreaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2025\/10\/08\/even-small-drops-in-vaccination-rates-for-us-children-can-lead-to-disease-outbreaks\/","title":{"rendered":"Even small drops in vaccination rates for US children can lead to disease\u00a0outbreaks"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/even-small-drops-in-vaccination-rates-for-us-children-can-lead-to-disease-outbreaks-265555\">The Conversation<\/a> <em>More than three-quarters of U.S. counties and jurisdictions are experiencing declines in childhood vaccination rates, a trend that began in 2019, according to a September 2025\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/data-investigation-childhood-vaccination-rates-are-backsliding-us-rcna228876\">NBC News\u2013Stanford University investigation<\/a>. The report also found a \u201clarge swath\u201d of the U.S. no longer has the \u201cbasic, ground-level immunity\u201d needed to stop the spread of measles.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-block-embed-vimeo wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dr. David Higgins: Back-to-school vaccinations\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/1116247582?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/som.cuanschutz.edu\/Profiles\/Faculty\/Profile\/25677\">Dr. David Higgins<\/a>, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cuanschutz.edu\/\">University of Colorado CU Anschutz Medical Center<\/a>\u00a0and a pediatrician who researches vaccines, discusses the dangers of not vaccinating your children.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Conversation has collaborated with SciLine to bring you highlights from the discussion, edited for brevity and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What vaccines are typically required for schoolchildren, and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>David Higgins:<\/strong>&nbsp;The vaccine requirements for kids to attend school are set by states, not the federal government. Most states require kindergartners get&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/medlineplus.gov\/whoopingcough.html#:%7E\">vaccines for pertussis<\/a>&nbsp;\u2013 that\u2019s whooping cough \u2013 and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mayoclinic.org\/diseases-conditions\/tetanus\/symptoms-causes\/syc-20351625#:%7E\">tetanus<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/my.clevelandclinic.org\/health\/diseases\/8584-measles\">measles<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mumps\/about\/index.html#:%7E\">mumps<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mayoclinic.org\/diseases-conditions\/rubella\/symptoms-causes\/syc-20377310\">rubella<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/chickenpox\/about\/index.html\">chickenpox<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For older kids, a booster of the tetanus and pertussis vaccine is typically required, as well as a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/my.clevelandclinic.org\/health\/diseases\/22442-meningococcal-disease\">vaccine for meningococcal<\/a>&nbsp;disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vaccines&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mmwr\/volumes\/73\/wr\/mm7331a2.htm\">reduce the risk of outbreaks<\/a>&nbsp;in places where transmission of these diseases is easy. Not only do vaccinations help keep both students and teachers safe, it also&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.amepre.2015.11.003\">encourages overall higher community coverage<\/a>&nbsp;for these vaccines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/even-small-drops-in-vaccination-rates-for-us-children-can-lead-to-disease-outbreaks-265555\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Conversation More than three-quarters of U.S. counties and jurisdictions are experiencing declines in childhood vaccination rates, a trend that began in 2019, according to a September 2025\u00a0NBC News\u2013Stanford University investigation. The report also found a \u201clarge swath\u201d of the U.S. no longer has the \u201cbasic, ground-level immunity\u201d needed to stop the spread of measles. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-measles"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10494"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10495,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10494\/revisions\/10495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}