Wisconsin ‘at risk’ for outbreaks as childhood vaccination rates continue to fall, state says
The percentage of Wisconsin toddlers who have completed the recommended 19-shot vaccine schedule by the time they turn 2 years old continues to drop, a "clear signal” the health and well-being of children is at risk, the state Department of Health Services announced Monday.
The 2025 data shows a drop of about 2% from the prior year, to 66.9% from 68.8% in 2024. It’s one of the larger drops in the last 12 years, similar to drop-offs in 2020 and 2021. Since 2021, the rate of vaccination completion for 2-year-olds had held fairly steady at around 68.8%.
A decline of 2% represents about 1,200 fewer children who are vaccinated compared to the prior year, Wisconsin Immunization Program Director Stephanie Schauer told reporters Monday.
DHS State Health Officer Paula Tran said vaccination rates act as an “alert system” on how protected the population might be from diseases such as polio, measles, hepatitis B and other diseases inoculation protects people from.
“Vaccination rates aren't just numbers on a chart, they represent real people — children, families, and neighbors,” Tran said. “Even small declines in vaccination rates increase the risk of preventable diseases spreading and outbreaks occurring."
DHS had warned last year that vaccination rates for children were falling, but attributed the decrease to new vaccine schedules for meningitis.
Vaccination rates for Wisconsin kids are falling, DHS says
Completion percentages vary based on the vaccine, with most vaccines falling in a range of 70% completion. About 81.4% of 2-year-olds had received all three doses of hepatitis B vaccine, and 80.9% had gotten their three doses of the polio vaccine.
Dragging down the overall percentage appears to be the second dose of the hepatitis A vaccine, which has a completion rate of 39.7%. Getting just one hepatitis A vaccine is much more common — about 75.7% of children get at least one, DHS data show.
The rate of measles vaccination has dropped below 80% for the first time in more than a dozen years. That’s concerning to health officials, who say the highly contagious virus can be stopped in a community when vaccination rates are 95% and higher. Schauer said recent news reports about outbreaks, especially in South Carolina, may change how people feel about vaccinating their children against measles going forward.
Wisconsin has had two incidents of measles this year, including a UW-Madison student. County officials predicted up to 4,000 people may have been exposed.
“Unfortunately, it's putting more of a face on how how terrible these diseases are and the risks that they bring with (them), and recognizing that we wanted to protect our children against these,” Schauer said.
Vaccination rates for teenagers also heavily vary by type. About 81% of children ages 13-18 have had the tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough vaccine, and about 52.7% of 13-year-olds have had at least one dose of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. For 18-year-olds, just under 30% have at least one vaccine protecting against meningitis, and 12.8% have two doses.
Adult rates of vaccination are generally lower than those seen in children. About 55% of adults between the ages of 19 and 26 have received both doses of the HPV vaccine, suggesting people might get a first or second dose after they turn 18. About 38.4% of adults ages 50 and older have received a shingles vaccine, and 47.2% of those people have also completed a vaccine series against pneumonia.
Hepatitis A completion rates for adults ages 19-49 are the lowest, with just under a quarter of people having both shots.
Vaccine policy has been largely upended at the federal level, as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a vaccine skeptic, has sought to curtail access to COVID-19 vaccines or reduce the number of vaccines U.S. health officials recommend for children. As a result, Wisconsin officials have opted to keep the former vaccine schedules and policies and require insurers to continue covering childhood vaccines at no cost.
State officials also reversed Kennedy’s changes to COVID-19 shot eligibility by recommending them for anyone ages 6 months and older. Last fall, the federal government said COVID-19 shots should be given only to older Americans or people with chronic health conditions, cutting out most children, healthy adults and pregnant women, who are more likely to suffer severe COVID-19 infections.
Gov. Tony Evers has also directed state health officials to join the World Health Organization’s pandemic alert network, just as other Democratic states have done, after President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from it earlier this year.
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