Childhood Vaccine Rates Are Falling: WIlliam Schaffner, MD

Childhood vaccinations protect every child, especially those who are immunocompromised or otherwise vulnerable to severe disease.

Diseases once considered eliminated in the US, like measles and whooping cough, are resurging, and pediatricians are urging parents to stick to the American Academy of Pediatrics' childhood immunization schedule.

"Maintaining high vaccination coverage is so important. In fact, it's fundamental to preventing all of these vaccine-preventable diseases," said William Schaffner, MD, professor of preventive medicine and infectious disease at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, in an interview with The American Journal of Managed Care^®.

Schaffner said unvaccinated children put others at risk, particularly those who are immunocompromised and can't receive the vaccine themselves.

"Declining coverage means that fewer children are vaccinated, and that will give an opportunity for these viruses and other germs to come back," he said.

The recent measles outbreak traced back to a Gaines County community in West Texas, where the MMR vaccination rate among kindergarteners was 82 percent, well below the 94.3% Texas rate and 92.7% national rate. Both fall short of the 95% coverage benchmark needed to maintain measles elimination.¹

"If we stop vaccinating, these diseases will come back," Schaffner said. "They're lurking out there, these germs, just waiting to make children ill again, sending them to the hospital, and unfortunately, actually killing some children."

Since the outbreak began in January 2025, there have been 3 deaths, 2 of them children, underscoring the stakes of childhood vaccination. The county's low vaccination rate was enough to trigger an outbreak that continues to spread across the southern US, with related cases also reported in Oklahoma and Kansas.¹

Research also shows the county-wide numbers can hide even bigger gaps: within Gaines County, individual school vaccination rates dropped as low as 46%, far below what's needed to prevent measles from spreading.¹

References

1. Beusekom MV. State, county MMR vaccination data mask wide disparities in school uptake, researchers say. UMN. October 7, 2025. Accessed August 17, 2026. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/measles/state-county-mmr-vaccination-data-mask-wide-disparities-school-uptake-researchers-say