Measles case in Missouri shines light on kindergarten vaccine rates

By Chris Fortune

Kindergarten vaccine rates in Missouri have been falling since 2016, which is a cause for concern for district health services.

Around a dozen total cases of measles were confirmed by the Pennsylvania, Georgia and Virginia health departments in recent weeks. The Clay County Public Health Center was notified of a measles case in a Liberty, Missouri, resident who was at the Kansas City International Airport on Jan. 4.

Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services data shows the immunization rate for measles, mumps and rubella vaccines in kindergarteners has fallen for seven consecutive years.

“We have children with immunocompromised health,” said Tammy Smith-Hinchey, St. Joseph School District coordinator of health services. “And so we want to protect all children from childhood diseases. Some of those childhood diseases were eradicated back in the ‘60s and ‘70s with immunizations.”

The MMR vaccine immunization rate fell from 95.4% to 91.3% from 2016 to 2023. There was a 2% decrease between the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years from 94.6% to 92.6% — the largest drop in a single year from the data set.

“I think the pandemic affected a lot of that,” she said. “Children didn’t keep up with their well-checks because there were a lot more sick people going into doctor’s offices and things like that. And then also, I think there is just a lot of fear around the COVID vaccine and a lot of mistrust in the medical system that was created.”

Smith-Hinchey said there is a need to remember that immunizations have eradicated disease and saved lives.

“It’s kind of like wearing a seatbelt or putting your child in a car seat,” she said. “Those are the things that are going to save their life and keep them healthy.”

Measles was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000, which means the disease is no longer constantly present in the country. It was the result of widespread implementation of a second dose of the MMR vaccine and improvements to the first dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Smith-Hinchey would like the vaccination rate for kids to be 95% or above for the required vaccines to attend school, like DTaP, polio, hepatitis B and varicella. Missouri kindergarten immunization rates for 2023 show them at 91.1%, 91.5%, 93.7% and 90.7%, respectively.

“It is a cause for concern,” she said. “We really need that rate of fully immunized kids to be at 95% or above, to keep the illness at bay.”