From birth through age 18, children in the United States are routinely immunized against a host of preventable childhood diseases. These include measles, mumps, rubella, polio, human papillomavirus (HPV), hepatitis A and B, tetanus, diphtheria, and other diseases. Routine childhood immunization is highly effective at preventing disease over a lifetime, reducing the incidence of all targeted diseases, and, for the U.S. population in 2019, preventing more than 24 million cases of disease.1 Yet despite this success, childhood vaccination rates have seen a troubling decline in this country since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, deepening preexisting gaps in vaccination participation. The decline in routine childhood vaccinations is concerning from health, equity, and economic perspectives.
Reversing the Decline in Routine Childhood Immunization Rates Is Good Health, Equity, and Economic Policy
July 6, 2023