LANSING, Mich. — Child vaccinations are declining after a 2017 peak in Michigan, a new study found.
The Michigan League of Public Policy and Data Driven Detroit released a report Monday showing a decline of five-month-old children.
The report examined federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data that said, for example, those children that had up-to-date vaccinations declined from about two-thirds in Michigan from 2016 to 2019, to less than half in May 2020.
“In addition to a decline in up-to-date status in almost all age cohorts, the number of noninfluenza vaccine doses administered and reported for children aged 18 years or younger decreased 21.5 percent, and the number of doses administered to children aged 24 months or younger decreased 15.5 percent during January–April 2020, compared with the same averaged periods in 2018 and 2019,” the CDC data said.
Kids Count in Michigan Project Director Kelsey Perdue said the dip was concerning.
“Herd immunity protects everyone from contagious diseases, but the exact rate of immunity to protect a population varies depending on the disease, so any dip in vaccination rates is a threat,” Perdue said in the MLPP release. “Last year’s measles outbreak prompted us to look more closely at the data to find patterns.”
The report also showed that Michigan kindergartners double the national estimate of those who have vaccine exemptions, partly due to misinformation and confusion about alleged dangers of vaccination.
“The report points to a 2019 Gallup poll that shows 46 percent of Americans are unsure whether autism and vaccinations are linked, and 10 percent said vaccines cause autism,” the release said.
There is no link between vaccines and autism.
The full report can be read here.
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