Again shortly.
Recording in progress.
Well, good afternoon and thank you
for joining us.
You should have received our news
release, DHS releases 2025
statewide vaccination rate data
and childhood rates continue
to decline.
There's also a link to the release
in the chat and it is available
on the DHS website.
Joining us today to answer your
questions is Dr. Stephanie Schellar,
the Wisconsin Immunization Program
Manager.
And before we take your questions, a
reminder to stay on mute until
you're called on.
We'll take two questions
to start and if there's time, we'll
come back around for additional
questions.
And our first question today belongs
to Hope Kerwin from Wisconsin
Public Radio.
Thank you.
I wonder if you can talk a little
bit about why
we see some vaccines
have higher coverage rates than
others when we look at the childhood
vaccine data.
I'm seeing shots
like Hep B and polio.
They're in the 80%, whereas others
are not as high.
And so is it when the
shot is coming in the series?
Is it, you
know, that the.
Particular disease?
Like, do we have an understanding of
why some rates are higher than
others?
Yeah, so what we are measuring, and
this is an annual assessment of
vaccines that are received by 24
months of age.
And, as you noted, each vaccine
has a set number of doses that
are recommended in a particular
cadence, and we measure that.
And so some of the vaccines,
we're only measuring one dose or
within that period, and others,
it may be a series.
And it certainly takes more time and
effort to in a higher number.
Of doses.
And so that may be accounting for
some of the variants in terms of
rates between the different
antigens.
There certainly may be some
other factors that focus
in on that.
In particular, the hepatitis
A, given its series
and what it's given, if children
get off schedule even
just a bit, it is a little difficult
to actually get the two doses
that are recommended by that
24 month of age.
And so that one, why that one in
particular is a little bit lower.
And we continue to look at that.
We do look at these antigens
and vaccines separately
as well as part of the series.
What we know is when we put all of
these series together and we measure
them from one year to
the next, we have that comparison.
And for this year, while
nearly seven out of every
10 children had the recommended
vaccines in this series
by 24 months of age,
we know that three out of kids did
not, and that's been a decline
of almost 2% compared
to the previous year.
Another question.
Yeah, I mean, going off of that,
I mean two percentage points seems
rather small, right?
And so I wonder if you wanna kind of
put in context why that is alarming.
Yeah, to put it in, you're right.
And when we talk about percentages,
it's hard to wrap your head around
what that actually means.
When we look at this particular
cohort, so this is just the group of
kids that are turning 24 months of
age, it means about
1,200 children are
receiving these recommended vaccines
by this age point compared
to last year.
That means we've got fewer kids
protected. We've got larger
gaps in our community immunity.
And so, you
know, behind these numbers, we're
talking about numbers today, but
behind these numbers are really,
it's children, it is families, it s
our community.
And this is a good
opportunity to really take the
temperature and see how are we doing
as a state and within
smaller communities,
how are the protection
bearing out and
raising alarms or raising concerns
when those aren't going in the right
direction.
Thank you, Hope.
Now to Alex Moe from
wissbusiness.com.
Alex?
Hi, thanks for taking my question
here.
So in these latest figures, the rate
for the MMR vaccine among these
two-year-olds was 79.8%.
So the share of these kids getting
protected from the measles is now
below 80% for the first time
in at least a dozen years.
Based on the DHS webpage, that goes
back to 2013, I believe.
Can you tell me the last time this
rate has been below 80%,
you know, looking back further, and
if there's any particular
significance to- dropping
below 80% for the first time in
years or maybe even decades.
Yeah, and I don't have the exact
number sort of further back
for that. We certainly can get it
for you.
But, you know, measles is
a very infectious disease and
really requires a very high level
of immunity in
a community such that it won't
spread. It's upward of 95%.
80% is a pretty low bar
and it still is not quite where we
need to be.
And so it is something that
we are concerned with as
we continue to see that
drop, you know, the measles decrease
was about a 1.6%
decrease compared to the previous
year.
That's headed in the wrong
direction. We need more children
protected, not fewer.
And as I said, that we
really need to be closer, up around
95% of the community protected
so that we don't have an
outbreak if measles is introduced
into a community.
And another question.
Yeah, thank you.
You know, looking at the overall
decline, this is the largest one
we've seen in the overall
recommended vaccination rate for
children and adolescents in about
five years, it looks like, you know,
2021 to 2024 was
holding relatively steady, a very
small decrease relative to
just the most recent one from the
prior year.
Can you, you, know, talk about any
factors that might be driving this
larger dip?
Yeah, I mean, I think the changes
are due to a number of different
factors.
You know, it may be accessibility
to vaccines.
We know that getting kids in
to the doctors on time, it can
be hard with busy schedules
and trying to,
you know, rally kids and getting
them from school into.
Places or or child care.
We understand that there's
a lot of misinformation and
disinformation out there that maybe
people are questioning
vaccines and or
they may be delaying or spreading
vaccines out.
A whole host of reasons why we make
that may contribute to you're seeing
lower rates.
So, that's really an important...
Point to note.
One of the programs that we have,
it's the Vaccines for Children
program, really helps to try and
address some of these concerns.
So this is an entitlement program
whereby children who are uninsured
or underinsured, or on Medicaid,
or Alaska Native, or American
Indian, can access vaccines
without charge.
They don't need to pay for the cost
of the vaccine, and the
administration cost can be waived
or is zero.
And this is a program that's been in
existence for 30 plus years and
a way to really ensure that
no child should go without vaccines
due to cost.
Insurance all covers vaccines.
So this really helps ensure
that we've got coverage across
all parts of our
community.
That network can be found on
our website. If you go to the
website, you can find where there
are VFC providers near
you. Many of them include local
and tribal health departments as
well as private healthcare providers
are all part of this network.
So that's one thing that we're
trying to do to get
the information out
about this particular program
because we know one of the big
concerns these days
is cost and this is a
program whereby we can,
parents don't have to worry about
cost to keep their children
protected.
Thank you.
Our next questions belong to Eric
Gunn from Wisconsin Examiner.
Thank you very much for
conducting this discussion.
Over the years, as I've talked to
people in public health, I get two
basic different groups
of people who don't get vaccinated.
One is, and you've kind of alluded
to both of those, one is
active physician,
misinformation,
disinformation, all the way to maybe
hesitancy, I'm kind of a little part
of that.
The other is access
and awareness, just
even knowing that this is a thing.
People who live in
impoverished communities, people
who may be
working three
part-time jobs and just
beside themselves.
So, it's really kind of an access
issue. Do you have any sense of
how much of this gap is
because of the access issue and
how much of it is because of the
hesitancy to hostility
issue.
Yeah, you know, I don't have that
data certainly for
Wisconsin to
sort of break it down.
And I think you're right.
It's sort of both of those pieces.
We continue to work on that access
piece. We are looking to
enroll more pharmacies
into the VFC program.
We have a few and we're continuing
to work because they often can
provide perhaps a more accessible
way of getting vaccinated.
May have different hours or maybe
in parts of community
where we don't have other vaccines
for children providers.
So we are continuing to
work to help increase the access,
increase awareness around this
particular program.
So talking about it today
with you all and hoping that you'll
be able to direct people
if they have questions about how
to access vaccines for their
children. We don't want any children
to go without vaccines
because they didn't, they aware of
this program.
Although many providers, as I
said, we've got over 720 providers
are part of this network.
And hopefully the
provider that they're already seeing
is part of this and they're able to
access vaccines.
So it's a really good
question.
We do know that if you
sort of look at where is
the trust, so going towards that
hesitancy piece, that
there was a recent study coming out
from, I think, the Annenberg School
that showed about 86%
of individuals had a
fair degree of confidence in
their primary healthcare providers
to provide them information
on public health matters, including,
and that would include vaccines.
And so we continue to,
you know.
Recognize that parents have
questions and that's appropriate
and okay, but we want to make
sure that they're getting those
questions answered and by going to
their primary health care provider,
someone that they trust with their
child's health with these questions
so that they can feel reassured
that providing vaccines is
really the most safe and effective
way of preventing some of these
really nasty diseases.
So working to really ensure that
the information that they receive
is evidence-based,
it's coming from someone they trust,
and they're doing their
part to make sure that their child
and their community is healthy.
Another question, Eric.
Um, yeah, in addition
to bringing more
attention to the vaccine for
all pro or
the vaccine for children program,
the vaccine, uh,
that you've been talking about, um,
are there other specific plans
or initiatives that DHS is
either considering or, or beginning
to undertake to try to
reverse this trend?
Yeah, you know, we know we can't do
it alone. We have what is
called the RICE program, or routine
immunizations through the community
engagement.
And these are small grants that we
give out to community-based
organizations and local
tribal health departments who apply.
And these really geared
towards being the
trusted messenger and talking about
vaccines and vaccine safety
and why they are important
in their communities.
So, it's individuals within a
community talking to their
community.
So, really supporting that local
voice of trusted messengers.
So that's one thing.
If you look on our website for
the Rice providers, you can see that
we've got, I think, 25.
In this current year, we've been
funding community organizations in
this way for a couple of years and
really find that they have
a good reach and a good way
of connecting with people.
So that's one way that we do it.
As I mentioned, we do work with
local and tribal health departments.
They are also community partners
who are known within their
communities. So really making that
messaging be more local
is such a key
part of
that.
And then I think, you know, just
working with other partners in
many different spaces and providing
routine messaging out to local
health and health
care providers about the latest
information about recommendations
so that they have what they need to
really talk with patients and
parents about the common questions
that they may be getting.
Thank you. Now to Lucas Kim from
WKOW-TV in Madison.
Lucas.
Hey, um, just one question for me,
you know, you've had a decrease
in vaccination rates.
Is there any hope in the future that
these rates end up going back up?
I do, and I will say,
you know, it wasn't all
negative.
We did see in adolescents,
we saw some increases in
meningococcal vaccine
coverage, both completion
for 17 and 18 year olds,
and for one dose of meningococo
B also increased.
So we are seeing some
increases, you now,
at least in the adolescent age
group and adults, they
remain steady or slightly increased.
And so we are seeing some
increases in certain areas.
I am hopeful that we will
continue to see
as many partners are working
that we'll see a change.
I think unfortunately some of the
news that we are hearing these days
about measles outbreak,
it's given people a better picture
of what these diseases actually
can do.
We've gone for so long without
really hearing about measles because
it was well controlled.
We had high vaccination rates
and it wasn't getting into pockets
of community that were so under
vaccinated.
But that's changed in the last
couple of years.
And I think people perhaps will
have a new appreciation as
we look at the national statistics.
I think we're up to 1200 cases
nationally in 2026.
And we're just at the beginning of
March. This is starting to have
some real impacts on communities
as we watch places like South
Carolina and see that
they're having many exposures
and individuals are being
hospitalized.
I think unfortunately it's putting
more of a face on how
terrible these diseases are and the
risks that they bring with and
recognizing that we
wanted to protect our children
against these.
Thank you. Now to Maddie Heim from
the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Hi, thank you.
Most of mine have gotten answered.
So I just wanted to clarify earlier
to Hope's question about what that
2% means.
Just clarifying, did you say it's
about 1,200 fewer children
this year who have received their,
or in 2025, who have
receive their recommended vaccines
by 24 months compared to 2024?
Correct.
You've got that right.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
That's it for me.
Thank you, Maddie. Now to Sean
Kirkby from Wisconsin Health News.
Sean.
Once again, Sean Kirkby from
Wisconsin Health News.
Okay, moving on to Tegan King
from the Wisconsin State Journal.
Tegan?
Again, Teagan King from the
Wisconsin State Journal.
Well, we have a little bit of time
left to go back around for
additional questions.
We'll begin at the top with Hope
Kerwin. Hope, another question.
I am all set. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Alex Moe with Business.com.
Alex?
None more for me either.
Thank you.
Eric Gunn, Wisconsin Examiner.
Yes.
You're mentioning of the improvement
in the meningitis vaccine
in adolescents.
To what extent do you
associate that with the fact that
the DHS was able to finally bring
a rule into being
and into action regarding
the meningitus vaccine,
which I believe was about a little
less than two years ago now?
Yeah, you're right. I mean, at the
last two years, we have seen an
increase in meningococcal
rates rise in that
adolescent group.
And we do attribute
that, at least in large part,
to that change in school law.
So, it had been fairly steady
up until then.
And then we are seeing increases
that, typically, with vaccination
rates, they go up
very incrementally.
We have seen some a little bit
larger jumps and really do
contribute that to increased
awareness about the meningitis
vaccines and
that there's more families asking
about them or doctors talking with
families and to ensure that
kids are protected and getting
those. So I think that is indeed
shows that school immunization
requirements can and
do help and ensure that our
kids are protected.
One thing I, Jennifer, one thing I
do want to just highlight is that
we are coming up to spring break
and just a reminder to
families that it's so important to
make sure that you're up to date,
particularly for MMR.
If you are traveling,
the majority of measles
cases that are
outbreaks that are starting are due
to individuals who have been
traveling where measles is occurring
and then bringing them back into
the state.
And finding that there's,
and that's nationwide.
And so we're really trying to make
sure that as people
start preparing to travel,
that they take a minute, go to the
Wisconsin Immunization Registry or
the electronic medical record
through their healthcare provider
and check and make sure that
everybody is covered
with the measles mumps rubella.
There are some instances where
some children less than one
year of age, if they're traveling
internationally to where measles is
circulating, that they may receive
a dose early on.
It's just for like
nine to 12 months of age, I believe,
but it is important to connect
with your provider and make sure
that you are up to date before
traveling because we want everyone
to have a good time, but not bring
anything
back like measles to Wisconsin.
Thank you for that.
And I know Lucas and Maddie
said they didn't have additional
questions, but I want to give you
another chance in case something
occurred to you, Lucas.
I'm all set, thank you.
Well, welcome, Maddie.
Yeah, I did have one more come up,
actually, and this is a little bit
related to what Eric was asking, but
I'm curious with those rice grants
over the years that they've
been administered.
Have you, has DHS seen anything
really innovative out of
those that you know could
be a new way
to help encourage more folks to
get vaccinated or children.
Yeah, I think they're all
doing such different work.
And there is a little description on
the Web site of what they're doing.
I think what they are being very
innovative in where they are going
and showing up for their
communities. And every community
looks different and maybe
has events or
locations that
are particular and helpful.
And so they are showing up where
people are. I that's one of the
common themes. But those look so
different across the state and we're
always impressed at
where they end up providing
information and having
conversations.
They are by no means static and they
are moving around and getting into,
whether it's festivals and fairs,
they're meeting people where they
are at. So that's one of the
commonalities and there's
probably just too many to name, but
I would encourage you to look at our
website and see
what all
the work that they've been doing.
They tend to cover, they may be
located in one county, but they may
have a footprint that several
counties around them.
And so they're fairly active
in doing that.
But the key piece is really
that one-to-one connection.
An effort.
Thank you. Last call for Sean
Kirkby from Wisconsin Health
News.
And finally, Teagan King from
the Wisconsin State Journal Teagan.
Hearing none, we will conclude
today's media availability.
Our thanks to Dr. Schauer and all of
you for participating.
Additional questions can be sent to
DHS media and you can find more
information as well on our website.
Thank you and have a great
afternoon.