National vaccination rates may continue to slump as states relax vaccination mandates

Child vaccination rates continue to decline.
(CDC photo, Unsplash)

Sliding vaccine rates could become a national trend as several states relax vaccine requirements and reduce promotion efforts, reports Shalina Chatlani of States Newsroom. "Vaccination rates are lower than they were before the pandemic."

Even with a growing measles outbreak in Texas, many Americans continue to reject or remain uncertain about vaccination requirements. "Public health experts worry that the confirmation of vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could add fuel to such efforts, leading to the resurgence of long-tamed infectious diseases," Chatlani explains. "Kennedy has made numerous baseless or false claims about vaccines."

Before the pandemic, most Americans accepted vaccination mandates as a medical directive based on scientific expertise, but that has changed. Al Cross, director emeritus of the Institute for Rural Journalism at the University of Kentucky, explained the shift, "Public health was once about doctors and nurses, and when it became defined in the public mind as coming from politicians, trust in it eroded quickly."

Without that trust, more parents have sought vaccination exemptions for their children. Chatlani reports, "Changing attitudes have had an impact: Vaccination rates among children born in 2020 and 2021 declined by between 1.3 and 7.8 percentage points for recommended shots, compared with children born in 2018 and 2019, according to a September report by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

The accepted reasons parents can use to avoid state vaccination requirements are also likely to increase. "Republican officials in more than a dozen states have introduced legislation to loosen vaccine rules or otherwise reduce their use," Chatlani adds. An Idaho Senate panel recently considered a bill "that would ban mRNA vaccines, including Covid-19 vaccines, for a decade. Montana and Mississippi lawmakers considered but defeated similar proposals."