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In the state of Oregon, it is estimated that only ** percent of children have received recommended doses of DTaP, polio, MMR, Hib, hepatitis B, varicella and PCV vaccines by the age of 35 months. This statistic displays the states with the lowest percentage of children receiving recommended immunizations in the U.S. as of 2021.

Vaccine successes

Vaccines are one of the most cost- effective ways of preventing the spread of infectious diseases and reducing the health burden on healthcare systems. With immunizations, both the receiving individual is protected as well as others who cannot be vaccinated- if herd immunity is achieved, a disease may be eradicated within an area. Examples of vaccine successes include polio and diphtheria in the U.S., where reported cases of the diseases dropped to zero in recent years as a result of the effective implementation of vaccine programs.

Vaccine hesitancy

Many schools in the U.S. have immunization requirements to ensure protection against preventable infectious diseases; however, reasons to avoid the requirements can range from health-related contraindications to religious or philosophical reasons. Although vaccines have been proven to be safe, myths about harms due to vaccines continue to perpetuate. For example, the proportion of U.S adults who believe that vaccinations cause autism rose between 2015 and 2019 despite the fact that the evidence on which these claims are based has long since been redacted as no causal relationship has been proven. Unfortunately, the lack of MMR vaccination has caused a resurgence of measles and mumps in recent years in the U.S. and prevented eradication of these preventable diseases.