HASs misinformation about Covid-19 continues to flourish, more parents in the United States are questioning whether other vaccines are really necessary for their children and more and more adults prefer to go without injections, even those whose safety has long been proven. Because the politicization of vaccines against Covid-19 has fueled the anti-vaccine movement, contributing to the drop in the number of immunizations against measles, polio and other dangerous diseases.
Anti-vaccine social media messages are amplified by conservative political figures as well as overseas campaigns, whose misinformation about vaccines predates the pandemic. And with declining vaccination rates, there are fears that diseases that have been largely eradicated in many parts of the world will reappear. In the United States, the percentage of children in kindergarten who received the recommended vaccines fell by one point, to 94% in 2020-2021.
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In some states, the changes have been stark, especially at the height of the pandemic. Researchers have found a 47% drop in the rate of immunizations in Texas among five-month-old babies and 58% for those aged 16 months between 2019 and 2020. These researchers wrote in the scientific journal Vaccinated that these declines were the result of lockdowns, vaccine exemptions, but also an “aggressive anti-vaccine movement in Texas”.
Vaccination rates at rock bottom
Washington state saw a 13% drop in childhood vaccination rates in 2021 from pre-pandemic levels, and Michigan’s toddler vaccination rate fell last year to 69.9%, the lowest in a decade. Rates in adults and adolescents also fell for vaccines protecting against diseases such as influenza, hepatitis, measles and tetanus. This has led to around 37 million missed vaccination doses from January 2020 to July 2021 for adults and children aged seven and over. Social media helped create a coalition of anti-vaxxers, libertarians and conservative politicians.
Conspiracy theories have surged during the pandemic, according to a 2021 YouGov poll, which found that 28% of Americans and a significant number of people in other countries say the truth about the harmful effects of vaccines is “deliberately hidden “. The problem is also growing globally. A United Nations report revealed last year that 23 million children worldwide did not receive routine vaccinations in 2020.
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