Reacción a "Childhood vaccination rates have stagnated since 2010"

It is often said that, after clean water, vaccination is the most effective intervention for protecting the health of our children.  While it can be challenging in many settings to measure vaccine uptake accurately, the researchers publishing the latest data from the World Health Organization have made allowance for this and it provides powerful evidence.  It is estimated that vaccination has prevented an estimated 154 million deaths, mostly in the under-fives, across the globe in the last 50 years.  However, we cannot rest on our laurels; this progress is stalling in many countries including the UK.  In UK, although vaccination is the norm, with the overwhelming majority of parents vaccinating their babies, infants and children without hesitation, there has been a small but gradual decline in the number of parents doing so each year over the past 12 years with increasing inequity in uptake between social groups.  This has resulted in recent outbreaks of disease with the largest number of confirmed cases of measles since the 1990s and the tragic deaths of eleven babies from whooping cough in 2024.

The reasons for declining vaccine uptake are numerous and complex but require commitment and resource to meet the challenges of increasing social inequity, readily available mis-information about vaccine safety and necessity and improving public confidence in vaccination programmes.  Vaccination remains one of our most powerful tools for protecting child health, but its continued success depends on sustained investment, equity, and public trust.