Recording in progress.
Everyone, we will get started in
just one moment. We want to make
sure that I think that everybody
is in and has record
capability.
So we will get going right
now.
And we want to thank you for
joining you
know, on back to school
immunizations and keeping
Wisconsin's kids healthy.
I know you all saw this morning's
news release, new DHS data
shows school year vaccination rates
held steady for 2024,
2025 school year.
And the one we published on
Saturday, DHS confirms first
cases of measles in Wisconsin this
year. We have links to both of
those in the chat.
Dr. Ryan Westergaard, Chief Medical
Officer in the DHS Bureau of
Communicable Diseases is here to
answer your questions.
We do only have a half hour with
him. So we're going to start with
one question.
If we can get through everyone and
we have time, we'll go around again
for follow-ups.
But we'll start right now with brief
remarks from Dr. Westergard.
Good afternoon.
Thank you for joining us today as we
talk about the very important topic
of childhood immunizations.
This topic is especially timely this
week for two reasons.
The first is that Wisconsin DHS
has released school vaccination
data for the 2024-25
school year, which provides an
opportunity to highlight and discuss
the importance of getting our kids
all of the recommended vaccines
before they go back to school this
fall.
The second reason we're speaking
today is that Wisconsin is reporting
that our first cases of measles
in 2025 were confirmed
over the weekend.
There have been nine cases among
Wisconsin residents, all of whom
live in Oconto County.
We're not going to report, and
we're not reporting any
hospitalizations or deaths among
cases.
And to respect the privacy of
individuals, We're not sharing any
additional individual information
about the cases.
Thanks to childhood vaccines, many
illnesses like measles and pertussis
that were once very common in
childhood are now much less common.
However, when vaccination rates
decline, then cases
of vaccine preventable illnesses can
surge.
As of last week, the CDC was
reporting 1,333
measles cases confirmed across
the U.S.
In 2025.
This is more than 1,000 cases higher
than the level was in 2024,
which was 285.
The Wisconsin school vaccination
data show that during the
2024-25 school year,
86.4%
of Wisconsin students met the
minimum immunization requirements.
This tells us that most Wisconsin
families are protecting their
children with vaccines, but
unfortunately, this level is below
where we need to be to protect our
state against outbreaks of
vaccine-preventable diseases.
As we head into the new school year
as a physician and as a father
of kids who attend public schools,
I want to encourage all caregivers
to reach out to a trusted
health care provider with any
questions or concerns that you have
to concern, to ensure that
students are up to date on their
vaccines this year.
Thanks, and I'll be happy to take
your questions now.
That, Dr. West regard.
We will questions beginning
with Sean Kirkby at Wisconsin Health
News. Sean Kirkby.
Hi, thanks for holding this.
I was wondering, Dr. Westergaard,
is the state taking any additional
actions such as acquiring more
MMR vaccine or
planning search teams in case there
is an outbreak of measles in the
state? Thank you.
Yes, we've been preparing for
case investigations and
outbreak response for months.
As I mentioned, there's been more
measles than there have been
in quite a few years across the
country.
So, while we weren't surprised
that we had our first
cases this past week, we were
prepared and we've
then making sure that we have
adequate MMR vaccine in
stock and have worked in
with all of our local and
tribal health departments to make
sure that we have a solid response
that everyone is aware of in
so far for this case and
things have gone well.
These cases, things have going well
and we feel
confident that we're prepared for
any additional cases if they should
arise.
Um, yes, Jeremy
wall from action two news in Green
Bay to the people infected.
Did they visit any place?
Calling on reporters in the order
RSVP.
So we appreciate that, but we're
going to go now to Scott that are
the associated.
Okay, Scott.
Just one moment.
Yeah, hey, doctor, thanks for doing
this.
What, what is the message you want
to give to parents who have not
vaccinated their children for
whatever reason?
What? What do you think is an
effective message to get
through to those people that hasn't
worked so far?
All right.
I think the
best way for parents to get
information is from a healthcare
professional that knows their family
and whom they have a trusted
relationship.
So for many
families.
Childhood immunizations are
a fact of life and they've
accepted them when they're
recommended.
But we know other families have
questions and concerns, and
my recommendation as a
public health physician and as
a physician who sees individual
patients is bring
on your questions.
If there are questions you have, if
there are information that you've
seen online or heard that makes you
question the safety or the
effectiveness, let's
talk about them.
We need listen to each other.
There are no bad questions.
What we want is that people can have
the conversations that they need
with trusted health care providers,
so they can make the right
decisions.
There's near unanimity.
Among people who have seriously
reviewed.
MMR safety data and other childhood
vaccine data that they are on
balance, very safe and very
effective and continually monitored
for safety for an adverse events.
So the recommendation
is to ask your questions and
make the decision
that we think is that you
think is in the right to
protect the health of your children.
Thank you, Dr. Westergaard.
Now to Sarah Volpenheim, Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel.
Hi, thanks for taking my question
were any of
the 9 cases vaccinated against
measles.
Yeah, thanks for the question.
As I said, you know,
we in public health have to balance
individual privacy for what the
public needs to know about our
location. And so individual
questions about individual's
medical history, and that includes
whether they were vaccinated,
are things we're not releasing
because to protect
personal protected health
information. So we're really only
releasing information about the
county of residence and the number
of cases.
Are you able to say anything about
it? We're gonna go now to Baylor
Spears, Wisconsin examiner, Baylor.
Hey, thanks for taking my question.
The cases and sort
of your push for, you know, parents
to vaccinate their kids comes as
there are some Republican lawmakers
who are pushing to increase
awareness around Wisconsin's
exemptions.
I guess, you, know, how well
publicized would you say Wisconsin's
exemptions currently are?
And what do you make of that push as
we're seeing cases of measles?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, thanks for that
question.
So in the report
that we shared about our
school vaccination levels for
2024-25, we indicated
the number of families that have
requested at least one exemption
for school vaccines
requirements, and it was about 6.7.
So this is higher than most
states. In fact, we're one
of only 13 states that has the
personal conviction
waiver.
Many states do not allow that.
It's only for health reasons or for
religious reasons.
So I also know that in
the forums
that schools share
with families about vaccines,
there's a notice about the
availability of vaccine waivers
for the requirements.
So we feel in
public health that knowledge
of the exemptions of
the waivers is commonplace,
we don't hide them,
but our recommendation is that
people get their kids vaccinated
because we as a public health entity
feel that any risks
are far outweighed by the benefit
both to individual health and to our
community health.
Thank you. Now to Jennifer at
Southern Lakes newspapers, Jennifer.
Jennifer at Southern Lakes.
All right, we'll try to get back to
her. We'll go now to CBS 58
in Milwaukee.
CBS 58.
All right, what about Nina, NBC
26?
Nina at NBC 26.
What constitutes an
outbreak and is this technically
or not an outbreak here in
Wisconsin?
Yeah, that's a good question.
So there's a.
Formal definition, CDC uses
for an outbreak which is,
I believe, three.
I'll double-check that it's not two.
But when I looked at this recently,
I think it's three cases
occurring in a community
that represent transmission within
a community, not a single exposure
to a known case.
So this,
we are not
considering these cases
to be an outbreak because the
investigation demonstrated a
single known source
of exposure to the nine
individuals out of state.
So that's to
say that we don't believe there's
a high risk of ongoing community
spread.
The cases had a common exposure
to a place out
of state but in the
U.S.
Where they were believed
to contract the virus and there
has not been evidence that
others have been exposed and
or that others outside of this
linked exposure group have
been symptomatic.
Thank you. Now to Anna Marie
at Wisconsin Public Radio.
Hi there, thanks for hosting us.
I just wanted to ask, not
just looking at the past year, but
looking back many years,
how do this year's school
vaccination rates compare?
What are the trends?
Yeah, that's a good question.
We have an infographic that
I believe we shared.
There is a link
to it
in
the news release.
The one figure shows from 2004
to 2005.
The number that are in, that are
behind schedule or in process.
And for about
the past 10 years, there has been
an increase in those
categories.
So it states from the,
you have to, the axes aren't
labeled precisely.
But if you can, if you look at that,
if you look that figure that
shows the number of that are behind
schedule from about 2019,
it goes up pretty significantly.
And the number behind schedule
now where it was 3.8%
in 2024-25.
So hopefully that set of
infographics can answer your
question.
Thanks.
Thank you, Rhonda Fox,
Specter News, Rhondda.
What's.
At Oconto County, did these
measles cases happen
and what date did the patient report
measles exposure?
Okay, thanks.
Again, we sort of
release this information according
to a standard that we use for every
case and every outbreak that
includes identifying where
people lived at the county level
only and not
more granular, not at the locality
level because of privacy concerns.
Thank you now to Jason at
Fox 6 in Milwaukee.
Thank you for your time when you
talk to people that have used the
religious exemption, they'll talk
about the vaccine and talk about
rebella in particular, derived
from aborted fetuses.
What is the state doing to maybe
urge manufacturers to separate
the measles vaccine from
the other components of that?
To my knowledge, the state has
not engaged with any manufacturers
on that issue.
For that.
Now to Jeremy Wong.
Hi, did the people infected visit
any place where they would infect
others?
Good question.
The answer is that
the
investigation that's been driven by
our colleagues at the local
health department has
not identified a
public source where we need to do
public notification.
The way this typically
works is that if an individual is
exposed to someone with a
communicable disease, they will be
notified individually, and we don't
share that information publicly
about those interactions.
But if there is a
public exposure, for example, a
person who's in their infectious
period goes to a
grocery store or is in church, and
don't we can't identify all the
people who may have been that
may have exposed, we will do
a public notification of a
possible source of exposure.
And we are not doing that.
We have not identified any such
potential exposures from
these cases.
So thanks for that question.
And thank you for that, Doctor
Westergaard now to Emily at
Fox 21, Emily at
Fox 21.
So I was just curious,
going forward, just
because the Wisconsin
vaccination rate is just
a little, is still behind from
the national average, what are
things that you guys
are going to do going forward to
kind of maybe increase
that? And I know you said as
much as you can, like people need to
go to their local health care
provider, but is there anything
outside of that?
Yes, another important
resource to know that
has been in place for many years,
but we want to keep strengthening
and drawing attention to
it, is that for people that
don't have
easy or ready access to
a source of primary care.
Many of our health departments
participate in the
Vaccines for Children program
and can administer vaccines
either at the health department or
at satellite locations.
Pharmacies are now an increasingly
used source of places to
get vaccinated as well.
Between these sources,
our strategy
for increasing
vaccinations is that there's no
wrong door.
We want the recommendations
to be understood
in a widespread way
and we want to have multiple points
where parents can interact
with a vaccinator,
whether it be their
primary care clinic where they go
to see their general pediatrician or
one of these public health locations
such as a health department or
a pharmacy.
So there should be multiple
options if it's not easy to get into
a primary care physician or
primary care pediatrics practice.
Thank you. Now to Blake at
WISN.
Dr. Westergaard, thanks so much for
taking some time out to answer some
questions. Mine is kind of a
two-parter just based on symptoms
alone.
We know it takes about 10 to 21 days
for symptoms to show after coming in
contact with someone with measles.
Is there a concern that more people
could be infected and their
symptoms just haven't started to
be shown yet?
And then also you say the risk is
low right now.
Where do you base that information
on to say the risks are low?
Yeah, yeah, both both
good questions.
So.
The local investigation,
as I mentioned, did
not identify specific
individuals or groups of
individuals that we think
have been exposed to
individuals. If those occur,
those outreach events happen
privately between a local
health official and the
family or the person who's in
contact with them.
So you're right.
When we have any case,
there is a period of time where we
can't say 100%
certainty that additional cases
will not present.
So that's why we always remain
vigilant for the full
two incubation periods after
cases. So even after the cases are
resolved, after the
symptoms go away, and after people
are no longer considered infectious
with measles or another communicable
disease, we maintain vigilance.
People who have been potentially
exposed are notified, are
reminded to monitor for symptoms
and report if they develop any
symptoms and are given information
about how to get tested if
necessary.
So we don't consider our
community or in an
outbreak setting, the outbreak to be
over until enough time has passed
that would anyone be
in the incubation period that those
symptoms would have happened by
now. So I hope
that's helpful.
Thank you for that.
Dr. West regard Alex Mo
with business.
Alex, are you on the call?
Yes, thank you for taking my
question. I wanted to ask about the
typical pattern for the measles
spreading in the state.
For example, is it likely to see
other cases in the surrounding area
typically order clusters of cases
like this kind of pop up
independently.
Yeah, thanks. That's it.
A good question.
So in recent years
in Wisconsin,
I think last year there was a
single, there was one case last year
in the
decade before
the COVID pandemic,
most years had zero cases.
So the way these typically go is
If an unvaccinated person
is exposed
to someone with measles, it usually
occurs out of the country or out
of this state.
And when they get sick in Wisconsin,
it is the.
The role of local public health,
state public health and clinicians
to do everything that
we know how to do to prevent it from
spreading. We've been generally
pretty successful with that over
the past couple of decades.
Meaning, if you look at our
numbers of cases of measles over the
past 20 years that you'll see a lot
of zeros, ones, and twos.
Meaning most of the time when we
have a case, it is imported,
it's a returning traveler, or
someone who was exposed in a place
where measles is is is
actively spreading.
And, you know, and then
through isolation, notification
of people who are exposed through
vaccination of people in the in
the area who have been exposed
who have not been vaccinated.
There's a number of things we can do
to minimize the risk that
it spreads further than the single
the single new case.
We're doing all those things now.
We are optimistic that
We know how to address
these cases.
Is it always 100%?
No. Sometimes additional
transmission can occur,
and there's a lot of examples around
the United States right now where
individual or small clusters of
cases have continued to spread
onward in the community.
So that's why our partners
in the local and tribal health
departments, that's what they train
for. It's why we have protocols.
It's why we have systems
to distribute vaccines for
prevention and for post-exposure
prophylaxis, and all those things
are being done for
these cases to make the
risk that additional
cases will pop up as low as it
possibly can be.
Thank you.
Thank you Benita.
Matthew Green Bay. Press.
Gazette Anita.
Hey, thanks for taking my question.
So I was wondering like what
the threshold is for
school when you talk about school of
vaccinations, what the Threshold is
for like a dangerous vaccination
level and like what percentage
of kids need to be vaccinated to
prevent sickness from really
dramatically spreading.
Good. Okay.
Good. Good questions.
So there is, you know,
transmission can occur anytime
that a person who has measles,
who is in their infectious period
comes in contact with someone
who is not protected through
vaccination.
So, so some transmission can happen.
You know, anytime there are people
who are unvaccinated.
On a population level, there
is a rule of thumb that we aim
for, whereby if
we do have an introduction of a
case, that it's very unlikely
to cause an outbreak.
And that rule of them is 95 percent.
It's higher than in measles
than it is for many conditions,
because measles is so
extraordinarily transmissible, one
of the most contagious viruses
that we know about.
So, but the classical
teaching in public health circles is
that if a, if, if a vaccination
coverage is at 95%, it makes
the likelihood that any single
introduction, a new measles case,
it will just be very unlikely to,
to be able to, for that spark
to essentially, you know, create a
fire that will start to spread in
the community.
So that's, that's why we pay a lot
of attention and we want to do a
lot, you, know, public
education about the
fact that we are below 95%
and that our school's
vaccination rate is below 90%
actually. So it's a target that we
all want to aim
for to try to
get our vaccination rate up
to that level.
Thank you.
Desiree Fisher, WSAW.
Desirae.
WSAW, are you on the call?
All right, we will try to get back
to her if there is time.
Deborah Fitzgerald,
Deborah Peninsula Pulse.
Alright, moving on to WDIO,
Michael at WDIO.
Ed at WFRV.
WFRV.
Erica Edwards, did you have a
question?
All right, and Deirdre, do you
have a question?
Hi, yes, thanks
for hosting this.
I was just wondering if you could
talk a little bit more about the
point of exposure.
I understand balancing, you
know, personal information with
public interest, but I, with all of
the outbreaks that are happening
across the country right now, I'm
wondering if we could share a little
more information about where these
cases stemmed from.
Oh, sure, about the
source of exposure.
So, as I said before, we're
only disclosing that it was
exposure to a common,
to a source of exposure
in the US
in a different state where measles
cases where they've been active.
And there are there are 40 as of
last week on this from
the CDC data aggregator,
there have been 40 states where
measles cases have occurred this
this year.
So far, not to say that they all
currently have active active cases.
But again, for privacy
reasons, we're not disclosing
the specific location of travel.
Thank you for that.
And we do have just a few moments
left. We've gotten through our list.
We do have time for just a couple of
follow ups. So I'm going to start at
the top. I apologize for not getting
to everyone.
But Sean, do you have a follow up?
Yeah, can you just sort of talk a
little bit about what's being done
to control the outbreak in Conno
County? I mean, is there any
indication that there could be
spread beyond the nine cases right
now?
Yeah, thank you, Sean.
So, as
I think I've described already,
the core activities
in the local public health
response is
Case investigation and
contact tracing.
So when we have people who have
tested positive or have been close
contact in our confirmed cases, we
do a detailed history
investigating the places that
they've been and people that they
have been in contact with.
If through that investigation people
are identified as being
potentially exposed,
those individuals work
with public health to identify their
vaccination status, not vaccinated,
are they eligible to get vaccinated
to become vaccinated.
And if there are any public
locations where people
may have been during their
infectious period, we do a public
notification.
So all of those things have been
going on now.
The risk that secondary
cases occur in that region is not
zero, but because of
our discussions with
local health department,
we feel that the risk is low because
the
cases, through that investigation,
we have not identified significant
exposure to other people in the
community.
Thank you for that.
Scott Bauer, do you have a follow
up?
No, I'll pass.
Thank you. Sarah Volpenheim.
Yeah. Thanks.
I'm wondering, Dr. Westergaard, if
you could talk about what it tells
you that the school immunization
rates for diseases other than
meningitis seem to have remained
steady from the 23-24 school
year to this past one.
Yeah, it tells us that we still have
work to do the
meningitis is the newest one and
that is I think there's reasons
to that are understandable why
the meningococcal vaccine that
there are more people who are who
are not up to date with
with that one because it was
recently added.
But for the other ones,
the fact that the
levels have remained more
or less stable,
tells us that we need
to keep doing
the strategies of
education and encouragement and
championing evidence-based practice
so that people have the
right information about
the importance of getting their kids
vaccinated and also make sure that
we have good access through all the
way, the slice locations
that we discussed before through
primary care visits,
local health departments and
pharmacies.
We will continue to do more
of the same to try to get that
number up in the years ahead.
And we will have to leave it
there. A good note to leave on.
Thank you, Dr. Westergaard.
Thanks to all of you for
participating.
If you need any additional
information, if you have additional
questions, just reach out to
DHS Media.
Have a good afternoon.
Okay, thanks.