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Top Michigan health officials and school leaders urged parents to catch their children up on vaccines for diseases like measles, mumps and chickenpox heading into the 2021 school year.
In a written statement, representatives of the I Vaccinate campaign said vaccination rates among children in 46 of Michigan’s 83 counties had fallen below 70%.
In seven Michigan counties and Detroit, the rate had dropped below 60%.
They said the dropping rates were the result of many parents postponing shots for children ages 19 to 36 months amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, chief medical executive of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, held a news conference Monday at 10 a.m. at Whitehills Elementary School in East Lansing.
“As students return to in-person classes and as we’re still dealing with rising COVID-19 cases due to the delta variant, it’s critical that we avoid outbreaks of other serious, preventable diseases,” Khaldun said. “It’s more important than ever for families to put vaccinations at the top of their back-to-school to-do lists.”
Veronica Valentine McNally, president of the Franny Strong Foundation and founder of the I Vaccine campaign, joined her, along with East Lansing School Board President Terah Venzant Chambers, Ph.D., and Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail, MPA.
The 10 areas with the lowest vaccination rates for children ages 19 to 36 months included:
- Oscoda County (45%)
- Detroit (48.4%)
- Gladwin County (52%)
- Keweenaw County (55.6%)
- Iron County (57.6%)
- Cass County (58.7%)
- Lake County (59.3%)
- Clare County (59.6%)
- Sanilac County (60.8%)
- Houghton County (61.3%)
Additionally, immunization rates for adolescents had dropped since the start of the pandemic from 77% in January 2020 to 73.7% in June 2021.
Health experts typically recommend a 70% vaccination rate as the minimum protection level for community immunity.
While COVID-19 is not a required vaccine for children or adolescents, officials said 32.9% of Michiganders ages 12 to 15, and 42.6% ages 16 to 19, had received at least one dose of the vaccine.
“Vaccines have always been one of the best tools in our public health toolbox for mitigating risk and keeping our communities healthy, and the pandemic and subsequent COVID-19 vaccine have proven that even more so,” Vail said.