Millions of Children Still Missing Routine Vaccines

Monday, August 14th, 2023 -- 11:01 AM

(By Joe Tarr, Wisconsin Public Radio) Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic almost four years ago, millions of children around the world have gone without routine childhood immunizations.

According to Joe Tarr with the Wisconsin Public Radio, last year, 20.5 million children missed one or more routine vaccines, according to the World Health Organization. While better than the previous year when 24.4 million missed a vaccine, the rate remains worse than before the pandemic.

About 18.4 million children missed shots in 2019. In Wisconsin, childhood vaccination rates are slightly lower than before the pandemic. In 2019, about 85 percent of children under 2 years old had at least one shot of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, according to the state health department.

Last year, under 82 percent of children had the vaccine. Statewide, immunization rates vary wildly. Last year, Manitowoc and Ozaukee counties had child immunization rates of 89 percent for measles, mumps and rubella.

But Clark, Crawford and Pepin counties had rates below 65 percent. Vernon County had an immunization rate of 48 percent. Stephanie Schauer, manager of Wisconsin’s Immunization Program, said immunization rates even more locally than the county level can affect spread of disease.

"It's important what the rates are where you're shopping and working and playing and going to school," Schauer said. "We know that there can be pockets where folks are not nearly as vaccinated as we would like, and those rates can drop lower than we need to prevent disease transmission."

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