As families make plans to head back to school, those plans often include a trip to the pediatrician's office.
Most schools require routine childhood vaccinations, but a growing number of Michigan families with young children are skipping those vaccinations.
It's a trend worrying state health leaders.
It’s a trend worrying to state health leaders. So, I spoke to the state's chief medical executive and the parents of young children to find out why families are making the decision to vaccinate or and some say it's not worth the shot.
Summer is winding down and back-to-school prep is heating up. Families are shopping for clothes and shoes, stocking up on school supplies and buying gear for school sports. But since the pandemic, more families are skipping routine childhood vaccination for diseases like measles, mumps, polio, tetanus, pertussis.
"Diseases that are really devastating. We saw rates of those vaccines go down, in our youngest children," Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Chief Medical Executive Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian said.
Bagdasarian says during the pandemic, the vaccination rate for routine childhood diseases fell to 66% in our youngest children, and the effects are still being felt.
In March of 2024, only 67% of Michigan children between 19 months and 35 months of age were fully immunized with recommended vaccines, a big decrease from March 2019 when nearly more than 73% of children in this age group were vaccinated. Bagdasarian says it’s a side effect of COVID-19 mis- and dis-information.
"All of that rhetoric and all of the politicization of the COVID vaccine seemed to have an effect on other routine childhood immunizations," she said.
When I took the issue to Facebook asking if parents plan to have their kids get the standard shots, it got contentious fast.
Carrie Summers says, “No more vaccines for my kids ever! I no longer trust the producers."
Katharine Meader said she “regrets ever giving her kid ANY “vaccination."
Edna argues, “Back to school shots” don’t make kids healthier.
Laura says, “children don’t get measles, mumps and rubella and polio and tuberculosis anymore only because most of them have been vaccinated.”
Kelsey, who is mom to a second grader and a kindergartner, said both of her kids are vaccinated.
"Was it a difficult choice for you?" I asked.
"No. I mean, I think once we looked into it, we felt pretty confident and talked to the doctors, and we felt good about it," she said.
"We're up to date on our immunizations for both these girls, and they're going back to school in a few weeks. She's in daycare, and this one will be in kindergarten," Doonan told us.
Molly says her 15-month-old son, Porter is unvaccinated because of an egg allergy.
"There's a lot of eggs in the vaccine. So per doctor's orders, we cannot vaccinate him," she said.
"Does that worry you at all?" I asked.
"So he is in treatment for his allergies. Once we finish his treatment, we will have to reconsider everything. But for now, this is our safest choice," Molly said.
Bagdasarian says more families choose to vaccinate when kids enter school with a rate roughly 90% when kids enter kindergarten and when starting the 7th grade. Closer to the 93 to 95% level needed to reach herd immunity to keep these diseases at bay.
"There are some communities where we are well above that threshold. And then there are some communities where we are well below that threshold," she said.
Vaccination can vary widely from community to community and school building by school building.
