For more than a half-century, vaccines have had remarkable success eradicating the most lethal and devastating childhood infectious diseases, saving millions of lives and ushering in a relative golden era of global public health, thanks to scientific progress.
But now, America is dangerously backsliding.
The vast majority of counties across the United States are experiencing declining rates of vaccination and have been for years, according to an NBC News investigation, the most comprehensive analysis of vaccinations and school exemptions to date.
This six-month investigation, in collaboration with Stanford University, gathered massive amounts of data from state governments and archives of public records reaching back years or decades.
"As childhood vaccination rates fall, we'll see more diseases like measles," Dr. Sean O'Leary, an infectious diseases expert with the American Academy of Pediatrics, said about the findings. "And we'll see more children die – tragically – from diseases that are essentially entirely preventable."
How we got our research: This was a key conclusion of a six-month NBC News investigation, in collaboration with Stanford University, resulting in the most comprehensive analysis of vaccinations and school exemptions to date.
NBC News gathered massive amounts of data from state governments and archives of public records reaching back years or decades. With the help of infectious disease researchers at Stanford, NBC News filed scores of requests for documents, including materials obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, and wrestled different types of data into a standardized format to map and compare rates across thousands of counties.
More on our how we got the story here: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/vaccine-children-exemption-data-measles-methodology-rcna229853
Posted by nbcnews
33 Comments
Would be helpful to have a different contrasting color for areas with no data available. I have a hard time believing that Mississippi, Arkansas, and West Virginia are the most vaccinated states in the country
Hi u/nbcnews. Pretty good visualization, but its not very clear what’s going on with a few states. Are they state-wide averages? If so, why – when the rest seem to be by county? Are they states without data? If so – then it would be better to show that with a color not already on your color gradient.
Another point: of the cut off under discussion is at 95%, a color scheme that makes that cut off more clear would make more sense imho.
Cheers 👍
I think a better visualization would compare the change in number of vaccinations over the last 6 months compared to the number of vaccinations in a 6 month time period 5 or 10 years ago. The percentage increase/decrease in each state would show where the antivaccination movement is actually gaining ground. Many of these places that have low vaccination rates may have always had low vax rates, and this antivax movement didn’t do anything at all. From a “where do we need to educate” perspective, seeing the change over time would be helpful.
I love seeing good information about public health. This is not beautiful data viz though. Too much ambiguity.
They’re going to end up as outliers for previously eradicated diseases in the developed world just like gun violence, where they explore every possible cause apart from the blindingly obvious.
It’s quite a thing to see a whole country slide back into obscurantism. The right-wing death cult in this country is going to get hundreds of thousands of people killed for no other reason than their own stupidity.
But our leader is a very stable genius. Kennedy surely is too? Right? Right?
It would be, sadly, interesting to see how outbreaks in communities impact the vaccination rate; say the recent one in Texas.
With so much skepticism over “official” encouragements, wonder if personal exposure to more concrete evidence drives a change. The new generation of parents are those who were never exposed to the horrors of a non-vaccinated society, and which a subset is skeptical of professional expertise.
Good, let the viruses finish the job
A report just came out that said only 64% of kindergarten kids are vaccinated in my county, which is a blue dot in a very red state.
I’m so tired of living around these people and frankly I’m a little scared of walking around with so little care for theirs and their kid’s health.
I only hope RFKjr lives long enough to see the price innocents had to pay for his ignorance. I sadly want the red states to feel the pain of their ignorance as well. Does that make me a bad person, probably, but being fully vaccinated I can live with that.
Ngl pretty proud of my state on the whole, though startling that cook county is slipping as it’s by far the biggest county in the state.
I bet this would have a correlation with literacy rates, though of course that doesn’t mean causality but I’ll draw my personal assumptions on that
The federal government response to COVID destroyed trust in key institutions that went far beyond making recommendations based on good science, to advocating policy positions and prescriptions.
New Mexico is interesting to me. Does anyone know why? I thought this was a political thing, but NM was a blue state last I looked.
Is it more than just the anti vaxxer movement at play?
The scale is upside down. 80% should be on the bottom, and 100% at the top.
This highlights how weak American information spaces are and how vulnerable and childlike lowest common denominator voters have always been in all republics. This wasn’t really possible before the abuses approved by Citizens United which were actually in place by 2005. Nor was a Trump possible. It was no coincidence that Trump’s #2 for the 2016 campaign was notorious fascist David Bossie, CEO of Citizens United.
At this point, Trump can easily sell communist or fascist ideas like controlling the fed as core conservative values without meaningful pushback. Look at all the communist style takings from private industry and education to the point even a R senator or two grumbles.
They should be consequent with their level of reasoning and stop using seatbelts, too.
Yea but they all wear hats made out of tin foil to protect them.
wtf did you think was going to happen. Lie non stop – and people stop believing you.
How cooked are we if another pandemic hits with this mess of an administration at the helm?
Very very few children were dying of measles before the vaccine.
https://preview.redd.it/pb5tkvgnxkpf1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3b808cbc668578096d816425de45cf7cafd95ffd
[https://finance.yahoo.com/news/physicians-informed-consent-releases-collection-210000556.html](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/physicians-informed-consent-releases-collection-210000556.html)
Wow, this is as far from beautifuldata as possible. Colour scheme is obviously confusing on purpose. Its a fucking trawesty
Darwin theory works slow sometimes.
Hey as long as they stay away from ALL medical advances, no prescriptions of any kind, no OTC, no X-rays, no stitches, nothing at all more power to them, but denying one type of medical science but accepting others is pure and utter hypocrisy.
The decline of the US is already in full swing. I love this.
has there been a cut to the Indian Health Service? A lot of those places in the west in states like New Mexico look like counties with reservations.
When the new wave movement crosses with maga. 🤣🤣🤣
How long until we see this move into the pets and domesticated livestock arena? I mean, clearly we are also giving all of our dogs autism when we vaccinate them from rabies.
The Chinese Communist Party must be over the moon these days. They aren’t even doing anything and their rival is destroying itself and handing the world over to them on a silver platter.
Being back vaccine mandates, your religion does not trump safety
Study sponsored by Pfizer, Inc. 🤣. Didn’t look that up or anything so probably not true, but wouldn’t be surprised if it was.
Wow, so Congress is going to rollback the 1986 national childhood vaccine injury act, so that consolidated pharma companies generating billions in quarterly profits (not just revenues, *profits*) will need to absorb greater consequences to ensure the public is highly confident in vaccines? Wow, what a day.