{"id":79997,"date":"2025-09-17T11:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T15:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=79997"},"modified":"2025-09-17T11:49:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T15:49:13","slug":"herd-immunity-is-now-dangerously-low-children-and-women-will-suffer-most","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/herd-immunity-is-now-dangerously-low-children-and-women-will-suffer-most\/","title":{"rendered":"Herd Immunity is Now Dangerously Low. Children (and Women) Will Suffer Most"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Anti-vaccination sentiment, spread in part by the high-profile likes of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is paving the way for the return of measles and other previously eradicated diseases to U.S. communities. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

For decades, vaccines<\/a> have kept Americans healthy<\/a> \u2013 effectively mitigating the spread of dangerous, even deadly illnesses like measles and polio to the point of largely eradicating them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But growing anti-vaccination sentiment, championed by a powerful and far-reaching grassroots campaign<\/a>, has imperiled that progress on devastating disease prevention. Even Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., current Secretary of Health and Human Services, who has stated in the past<\/a> that \u201cautism comes from vaccines\u201d \u2013 a widely debunked claim<\/a> \u2013 has taken up that mantle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, broad swaths of the nation no longer have the mutual protection (or \u201cherd immunity\u201d) needed to keep such illnesses from taking hold, a new study finds<\/a>. In 68% of U.S. counties and jurisdictions, immunization rates have fallen below 95%, the level needed to stave off outbreaks, researchers at NBC News and Stanford University have found.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The joint study also discovered that 77% of counties in the U.S. have reported \u201cnotable\u201d declines in childhood vaccination rates over the years. And \u201cas childhood vaccination rates fall, we\u2019ll see more diseases like measles,\u201d Dr. Sean O\u2019Leary, an infectious diseases expert with the American Academy of Pediatrics, told NBC News. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Leary was clear about the outcome of this trend: \u201cWe\u2019ll see more children die \u2013 tragically \u2013 from diseases that are essentially entirely preventable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These findings are revealed as Kennedy prepares to hold a federal vaccine panel<\/a> that will vote on recommendations for Covid boosters, chickenpox and Hepatitis B inoculations. Several members of the panel have expressed vaccine skepticism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It Impacts Women, Too<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the chief concern of children\u2019s health, the rampant spreading of illness would take a heavy toll on women\u2019s professional and personal wellbeing, too, as we remain America\u2019s primary caregivers to both young and old. Indeed, women are 10 times more likely<\/a> than male parents and partners to take time off from work to tend to their sick children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Louis has become a microcosm of these broader concerns, the NBC News and Stanford researchers found. There, vaccination rates have fallen from nearly 90% in 2010 to 74% in 2024 \u2013 even lower than the 77% vaccination rate in Gaines County, Texas, where a measles outbreak ripped through the local population earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a heavy, heavy fact,\u201d Virginia Wilson, head nurse at the Premier Charter School in St. Louis, said to NBC. \u201cWe\u2019re just in a waiting phase before measles comes and rocks the state of Missouri\u201d and the many other at-risk parts of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though there are other factors at play in the growth of the issue \u2013 access to healthcare and insurance coverage and easing school requirements among them \u2013 experts point to the spreading of vaccine misinformation as a significant driver. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt makes me sad,\u201d Dr. Thomas McKinney, a pediatrician at Affinia Healthcare in St. Louis, added. \u201cThe vaccines that we\u2019re giving have been such an important tool in preventing so much illness in kids, and just the community as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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As a federal vaccine panel prepares to vote on several once-regular shots, a new study finds that waning vaccination rates may cause the return of previously eradicated diseases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":79998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"Anti-vaccination sentiment is paving the way for the return of measles and other previously eradicated diseases to U.S. communities.","autoblue_shares":[{"did":"did:plc:l2n6ydtigm3gtra4vb4rfl7f","date":"2025-09-17T15:49:15+00:00","uri":"at:\/\/did:plc:l2n6ydtigm3gtra4vb4rfl7f\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3lz26qvmrqf23","response":"{\"uri\":\"at:\/\/did:plc:l2n6ydtigm3gtra4vb4rfl7f\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3lz26qvmrqf23\",\"cid\":\"bafyreid5is4qmuvrc5b63s44kys7yx66jc5qrlllzsy2l5vygwkkm543gy\",\"commit\":{\"cid\":\"bafyreiasokbtwz6nqagykqvax7fiq7emi6x65yd3ndsbcfn6jsh7ublaje\",\"rev\":\"3lz26qvmzkf23\"},\"validationStatus\":\"valid\"}"}],"autoblue_post_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[20437,21439,19731],"class_list":["post-79997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-happening-now","tag-public-health","tag-vaccination","tag-women-entrepreneurs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow Anti-Vax Push Hurts Children, Women Most<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A new study finds that waning vaccination rates in the U.S. may cause the return of previously eradicated diseases.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/herd-immunity-is-now-dangerously-low-children-and-women-will-suffer-most\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Herd Immunity is Now Dangerously Low. 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