Vaccine hesitancy appears to be driving up infection rates among diseases like whooping cough, measles and COVID-19.
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus conducted a national poll of 1,006 people in mid-August and found 37% of adults said they do not need the flu, COVID-19, pneumococcal and respiratory syncytial virus vaccines. CDC data showed that only 22.5% of adults reported receiving last year's updated COVID vaccine, though KFF found 58% of adults said they intended to get a flu shot this year.
Vaccine hesitancy has risen since the pandemic, despite most adults saying they are confident in the safety of COVID-19 vaccine (57%), the RSV vaccine (65%) and the flu vaccine (74%), KFF Health News reported.
However, fewer adults agree that healthy children should be required to be vaccinated for measles, mumps, and rubella in order to attend public school, with the percent of those agreeing falling from 82% in October 2019 to 71% in December 2022. About 28% of parents said they should be able to decide not to vaccinate their children, an increase from 16% in 2019.
"With the increase in vaccine hesitancy that has been going on since the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re seeing outbreaks occurring in kids who are not vaccinated," Tina Tan, MD, president-elect of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, told NBC News.
The effects of lower vaccination rates have shown itself in spikes in cases among measles and whooping cough.
1. A measles outbreak in Minnesota reached 30 reported cases over the summer. The outbreak was largely concentrated among unvaccinated children in a Somali community, and 1 in 3 cases resulted in hospitalization.
2. Whooping cough cases are more than four times higher compared to 2023, NBC reported. The CDC found 14,569 cases of whooping cough have been reported so far in 2024, compared to a total of 3,475 cases last year.
3. COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths declined in late August, but a new XEC strain is on the rise. There's a roughly 80% chance that peak hospitalizations from COVID-19, RSV and influenza may be similar to last year's levels of around 20 per 100,000 people.
However, controversy around the vaccines remains intense and persistent in certain quarters. Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, MD, PhD, again recommended in a Sept. 13 news release to not to use mRNA vaccines, contravening established medical practices. Instead, he encouraged people to stay active, prioritize vegetables and spend time outdoors. Dr. Ladapo has long criticized COVID-19 vaccines and other public health measures; the FDA and CDC have previously fired back at his claims.