The battle against infectious diseases like the flu and measles has taken a hit with sinking vaccination rates for children in many parts of the U.S., per new data collected and analyzed by the Washington Post.
The big picture: Vaccination rates for school-age children have plunged in hundreds of counties as chaos reigns over vaccination schedules, setting the stage for a potentially grim 2026.
- The new figures offer stark evidence of the extent of the backlash that began during the pandemic against public health mandates.
Catch up quick: Plunging vaccination rates contributed to a spike in measles cases, and set the U.S. up to to lose its coveted elimination status for the first time in decades.
- Meanwhile, Arkansas has seen a surging outbreak of the whooping cough, another vaccine-preventable disease that primarily affects young children.
- In July, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released data showing that vaccination coverage among American kindergartners decreased for all reported vaccines during the 2024-25 school year. (moved up)
Threat level: Only 815 counties have reached the herd immunity threshold of at least 95% of their students vaccinated, the data show. That threshold is the vaccination rate multiple public health authorities say is necessary to contain the virus' spread.
- At least 5.2 million kindergarten-age children reside in counties where vaccination rates are below the herd immunity level, according to the Post's data.
- Vaccination rates were most consistently high in New England states, Arkansas, California and Texas.
Caveat: Some states only had data most recently available for 2023, others were 2024. And while some states had MMR-specific rates, some only provided overall vaccination rates.
Zoom out: The decline in childhood vaccination rates comes as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President Trump have moved to overhaul U.S. policy regarding vaccine schedules.
- In September, Kennedy's advisers voted to shift how the combined measles, mumps and rubella shot is distributed to children. His handpicked advisory panel also voted to limit access to a combined shot for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella, the virus that causes chickenpox.
- In December, that same panel voted to end the decades-old federal recommendation that all infants receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth.
- Soon after, Trump called on health officials to review all of the U.S. childhood vaccination recommendations, and to align them closer with other nations.
More from Axios:
Vaccine rates for kindergartners fall as exemptions rise
RFK Jr. blows up America's vaccine policy
Trump calls for change in childhood vaccine schedule. Here's what the CDC recommends
