Are You Up to Date On Your Vaccines? - Yale Medicine

During the 2020-21 school year, the percentage of kindergarteners who had their routine vaccines dropped by 1%, bringing the overall figure down to 94% vaccination—which is below the 95% target set by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Goals are set for each vaccine, including the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine, DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis) vaccine, and the varicella vaccine. The targets, which vary by vaccine, are vital to maintaining herd immunity for each of the diseases the vaccines are designed to protect against; falling behind on a target may bring a resurgence of the associated disease.

Adults were behind on vaccines before the pandemic—three out of four were already missing one or more recommended vaccines, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The pandemic just exacerbated an existing problem, especially for children. "Pediatricians tried hard to keep their doors open during the pandemic so infants and young children could get into the office, but we're still finding that there were kids who fell through the cracks, as far as vaccination," Dr. Flaherty-Hewitt says.