The Muskegon County Department of Public Health is reminding parents to have their children fully vaccinated before returning to school this year, as Muskegon Public Schools first day of class is set for this Monday.
As teachers and students are filling up the classrooms once again this year, public health leaders on the lakeshore are urging parents to update their child’s vaccines, in an effort to prevent outbreaks of serious communicable diseases such as measles, mumps, or chickenpox.
According to June 2023 data from the Michigan Care Improvement Registry, childhood vaccination rates in the state are at their lowest since 2011, while the most recent data from MDHHS shows only 66.5% of children ages 1-and-a-half to 3-years-of ages have completed their recommended doses of primary childhood vaccines.
“Well, we know that there is evidence-based research that proves the efficacy of these vaccines.”
That is Muskegon County Public Health Officer Kathy Moore, who says there is growing anti-vaccination sentiment among some lakeshore residents.
“Our primary concern with a growing number of waivers and people who don’t want to vaccinate is that we may lose that natural immunity and start seeing diseases that we felt were eradicated, we may start seeing them come back into our communities.”
Moore says, she understands that most everyone has pandemic fatigue, and the last thing people want to talk about is vaccines, however, she says, this isn’t about COVID, it’s about keeping kids safe, as just one case of an immunization-preventable disease can spark an outbreak.
According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, in 2019, the U.S. was hit with the largest measles outbreak in 25 years, with more than 1,200 confirmed cases in 31 states, including 46 cases in Michigan.
