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Vaccination coverage of toddlers has increased over the past two years

According to a recent report from the CDC, here is the change in vaccination coverage of 2-year-olds over the past couple of years:

This is the most recent data available. Every single vaccination series is up. The complete 7-vaccine childhood series is up. The number of toddlers with no vaccination coverage is down. Here is the CDC:

U.S. coverage with most recommended childhood vaccines has remained high and stable for many years. Increases in coverage by age 24 months were observed for most vaccines.

....This report did not identify any overall decline in vaccination coverage associated with the COVID-19 pandemic among all children. The youngest children were born in 2019. These children reached age 12 months in 2020 and 24 months in 2021; therefore, many of these children had vaccine doses recommended after the pandemic was declared in March 2020.

....Vaccination coverage declined for children living below the federal poverty level or in rural areas during the pandemic, and substantial variation in coverage by sociodemographic characteristics persists. As observed elsewhere, estimated coverage was highest among Asian children and lowest among Black children.

Here's a look at vaccination coverage over a longer period:

This report doesn't break down vaccination coverage by state, and obviously some states are better than others while others are worse. Overall, though, this is yet more good news, and, I suspect, not something that most people know.

NOTE: In my chart I used the years in which the children turned 2. The CDC chart uses birth years.

1 thought on “Vaccination coverage of toddlers has increased over the past two years

  1. different_name

    This is good news, and I do find it surprising. Makes me think I need to adjust some priors around this.

    Sometimes crazy people trigger a counter-reaction. Seems possible this might be one of those times - if you're a new parent in an area experiencing an outbreak of antivaxxers, the risk of your kid catching a solved disease is probably more salient than average to you (assuming you're not already a cultist). I'm not sure how you'd research this.

    That's always been one of the big public choice questions to me - I don't understand the conditions necessary for "sensible backlash" to happen, vs. when things just keep getting worse and people put up with it.

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