Childhood vaccination rates decline nationwide; Nebraska reports 22-point drop

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – More and more states are seeing exemption rates increase for vaccines.

Nebraska’s has risen to 3.5%.

The national vaccination rate among children around 3 years old was 75.3% in 2018. Today, the rate sits at around 72%.

In Nebraska, the rate dropped from 81.7% to 59.6%.

Dr. Sahra Niazi from the Complete Children’s Health Clinic in Lincoln said the increase in parents choosing to forgo vaccinations is concerning.

“Although it’s not a very big decrease in that percentage rate, it still includes hundreds of thousands of children that aren’t getting vaccinated for important diseases like measles,” she said.

Nationwide, the percentage of children with the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine has gone down from 96.3% in 2019-2020 to 93.5% in 2024.

Niazi said without these vaccines, children run the risk of getting diseases that are very preventable.

“Herd immunity is really important when we talk about getting our kids vaccinated,” she said. “Obviously. it’s going to be impossible to get it to 100% vaccination rate, but if we drop below herd immunity and our vaccination numbers decrease and our vaccine exemption numbers increase, what we’re looking at is potential outbreaks.”

Niazi said a measles outbreak would be one of the worst because it can be deadly for children.

She blames the drop in vaccination on students being out of school during the COVID-19 pandemic and on misinformation circulating on the internet.

“The misinformation that we have online that’s only become a bigger problem as technology advances is a huge part in why parents aren’t wanting to vaccinate,” Niazi said. “And a little bit of distrust in the public health system, especially now post-COVID.”

The clinic said if you have questions about a vaccine, you should always ask your doctor for more information or visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website.