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Advocate to vaccinate: moving away from the “politics” of vaccination

Pediatric Research volume 95, pages 1168–1171 (2024)Cite this article

In the 2 decades from 1994–2013, immunization of children prevented ~732,000 deaths, ~21 million hospitalizations and 320 million cases of disease worldwide.1 Routine immunization has led to virtually 100% reductions in diphtheria, Haemophilus influenza Type B, measles, mumps, rubella and polio.2 In the United States (US) alone, childhood vaccination, combined with widespread acceptance and effective delivery of immunizations, has contributed to exponential reductions in pediatric morbidity and mortality.3,4 Pneumococcal conjugate and rotavirus vaccines are credited with preventing up to 60,000 rotavirus-associated hospitalizations, 211,000 severe pneumococcal infections and 13,000 US deaths in the first decade of the 21st century.5,6,7

COVID vaccination is protective against infection, particularly against the need for mechanical ventilation, critical illness and death, with immunocompetent adult vaccine efficacy rates between 50–94%.8 COVID vaccination in pregnancy carries high rates of effectiveness against hospitalization and Emergency Department/Urgent Care use, irrespective of current predominate strains.9 Vaccine efficacy in the United States against COVID hospitalization during pregnancy ranges from 64–99% depending on circulating strain and has been associated with decreased rates of stillbirth.9,10,11 COVID hospitalization in infants ≤6 months is also reduced with maternal immunization.11,12

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Fig. 1: United States partisanship and state vaccination exemptions.
Fig. 2: United States partisanship and child vaccination rates for Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis (Dtap), Influenza and Human Papilloma Virus.

Data availability

All data used in this paper is already publicly available from referenced sources.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY, USA

    Shetal Shah & Heather L. Brumberg

  2. Academic Pediatric Association, McLean, VA, USA

    Mona Patel & Maya Ragavan

  3. American Pediatric Society, The Woodlands, TX, USA

    David Keller & Lisa Chamberlain

  4. Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs, McLean, VA, USA

    Tina Cheng & Ann Reed

  5. Society for Pediatric Research, The Woodlands, TX, USA

    Joyce Javier & Lois Lee

Authors
  1. Shetal Shah
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  2. Heather L. Brumberg
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On behalf of the Pediatric Public Policy Council

  • Mona Patel
  • , Maya Ragavan
  • , David Keller
  • , Lisa Chamberlain
  • , Tina Cheng
  • , Ann Reed
  • , Joyce Javier
  •  & Lois Lee

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SS wrote the manuscript and aggregated the data in this paper. HLB reviewed the paper and made critical revisions to the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Shetal Shah.

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Shah, S., Brumberg, H.L. & On behalf of the Pediatric Public Policy Council. Advocate to vaccinate: moving away from the “politics” of vaccination. Pediatr Res 95, 1168–1171 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-024-03043-4

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