Colorado public health officials have worked for years to increase immunization rates for school kids, with a particular concern about the percentage of kindergarteners who are not getting the measles vaccine. 

They’ve offered free shots, sent letters and launched radio ads. Yet, the state’s vaccination rate is dropping.

Statewide, 86.8% of kindergarteners were vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella last year. That’s the lowest since 2017, erasing any gains the state had made in the prior five years. 

Read more at The Colorado Sun.

State and local health officials across the United States are bracing for a rise in respiratory illnesses this fall, and they are making plans to urge everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated against Covid-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus once those shots become available.

“We are very, very concerned about the upcoming pan-respiratory season,” Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, said in a briefing Wednesday.

Read more at CNN.

Most people know that even though vaccination doesn’t eliminate their risk of getting COVID-19, it does lower their odds for severe illness — including their risk for hospitalization and death.

Now scientists believe they know why.

Among people with a symptomatic COVID infection, those who were fully vaccinated had fewer markers of inflammation compared to those who were unvaccinated, a new study found.

Read more at U.S. News.

More than one in 10 Colorado kindergarteners hasn’t had all of their required shots, erasing pre-pandemic gains in getting children immunized.

The percentage of Colorado kindergarteners who’d received their vaccinations declined in the previous two school years, but was still slightly higher than it had been in 2018. Now, that progress has been undone, and older children were actually slightly less likely to be vaccinated in fall 2022 than they were four years earlier.

Vaccination rates were up slightly for children in preschool and child care, though.

About 88% of kindergarteners, 92% of all school-aged children and 96% of those in preschool or day care were up to date on their vaccines during the 2022-2023 school year, state health officials said. Kindergartners showed a 5.2% decrease in compliance, and all school-aged children a 2.2% decrease, over the 2021-2022 school year.

Read more at The Denver Post.

Most early-childhood vaccinations require multiple doses, but about 1 in 6 toddlers — 17 percent — are not getting all of the needed doses, according to a study published in the journal Pediatrics.

Incomplete vaccination leaves children vulnerable to preventable diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, mumps, measles, rubella, hepatitis and more. Full vaccination, however, also protects others in their communities and is needed “to develop and maintain herd immunity at a population level,” the researchers wrote.

Their findings stem from analysis of vaccination data on 16,365 U.S. children, 19 to 35 months old — considered a nationally representative sample. The data was gathered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, focusing on seven series of vaccines that require one to four doses and protect against multiple diseases.

Read more at The Washington Post.

Most Americans have had one or more shots of the flu and Covid vaccines. New this year are the first shots to protect older adults and infants from respiratory syncytial virus, a lesser-known threat whose toll in hospitalizations and deaths may rival that of flu.

Federal health officials are hoping that widespread adoption of these immunizations will head off another “tripledemic” of respiratory illnesses, like the one seen last winter. For people with insurance, all of the vaccines should be available for free.

Read more at The New York Times.

The first shot that protects all infants against respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, won the backing of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday.

RSV is the leading cause of hospitalization among infants in the U.S. The shot, branded under the name Beyfortus, provides families with a simple option to protect their babies during the respiratory virus season.

The CDC’s panel of independent advisors unanimously recommended AstraZeneca and Sanofi’s shot, also called nirsevimab, after reviewing the data in an hourslong meeting Thursday afternoon.

Read more at CNBC.

Simon Matthews made three trips this spring to the emergency room of his local hospital in Eastbourne, on England’s southeast coast, before doctors managed to figure out what was making him so ill.

He had a fever of 104 Fahrenheit, uncommonly high for an adult. On his first foray to the hospital — in an ambulance — it was feared he had meningitis. Cleared of that, Matthews, 62, was sent home with a vague diagnosis; doctors believed he had an unidentified viral infection.

But in addition to the fever, Matthews had the beginnings of what quickly turned into an itchy, full-body red rash — a type that a few decades ago all parents dreaded, and all doctors recognized.

Read more at STAT.

The coronavirus pandemic is no longer a national emergency, but the virus that causes COVID-19 isn’t gone—and neither is the risk of getting the disease. For parents, navigating when to get their child vaccinated and knowing how to best protect their child from COVID-19 can be complicated. We spoke to Michael Smit, MD, MSPH, Hospital Epidemiologist and Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, to get an update on the latest COVID-19 vaccine information and precautions.

Who is eligible for the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine that was approved last fall?

Everyone who is 6 months and older should get a bivalent booster dose as long as it has been at least two months since they received a monovalent vaccine dose, which was the original COVID vaccine. People who are 6 years and older and who are immunocompromised can also receive a second dose of bivalent vaccine at least two months after their first dose of the bivalent. If you have questions about the eligibility of you or your child to get the booster, you should check with your medical provider.

Read more at News Wise.

This week the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first monoclonal antibody shot to protect young children against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). While rates have now fallen, the three respiratory viruses (RSV, influenza, and COVID-19) surged among children last winter. Routine vaccinations, including the COVID-19 and flu shot, and the new RSV injection can provide important protection for children as they head back to school and into the winter season this year. This issue brief examines the most recent trends in children’s routine vaccinations, including COVID-19, and explores what to watch as children head back to school this year.

Read more at KFF.