A new study found that measles vaccination rates in children have declined in most U.S. counties since before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a research letter published June 2 in JAMA Network.
The analysis, conducted by researchers at Baltimore-based John Hopkins University, shows a national trend of decreasing vaccination rates for measles, mumps and rubella.
Here are four notes:
- Of the 2,066 counties examined across 33 states, 78% of those counties experienced a drop in MMR vaccination rates, CBS News reported June 2. Between the 2017-2018 school year and the 2023-2024 school year in those states, vaccination rates dropped from 93.92% to 91.6%.
- California, Connecticut, Maine and New York saw increases in their average county-level vaccination rates, and the other states were not included because they had missing vaccination data, the study said.
- As of May 30, 1,088 cases of measles have been reported, according to the CDC. Gaines County in West Texas, where MMR coverage is just over 80%, has emerged as an outbreak epicenter. The outbreak represents the highest number of measles cases reported in the U.S. in over 30 years except for 2019.
- According to the CDC, the rate of kindergartners who are vaccinated has decreased from 95.2% during the 2019-2020 school year to 92.7% in the 2023-2024 school year. “There’s a lot of counties that are well below the 95%, so we’re quite vulnerable, in certain pockets in particular of the country, for a measles outbreak,” Céline Gounder, MD, an editor for public health at KFF Health News, said in a recent “CBS Evening News” interview.
