Child vaccination rates dropping in Minnesota | StarTribune

Minnesota is lagging in getting kids vaccinated, according to the latest national figures released Tuesday by Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota.

According to the federal 2009 National Immunization Survey, Minnesota has dropped 13 spots in two years — from seventh in 2007 to 20th in 2009 — for vaccination coverage rates for the primary series of shots among all children age 19 months to 35 months.

In those two years, the survey found, Minnesota’s childhood immunization rate slipped to 76.9 percent in 2009 from 80.5 percent in 2007.

Based on the state’s current population of 423,000 children ages newborn through 5, for every percentage point drop in the immunization rate, 4,230 young kids are exposed to vaccine-preventable disease, Children’s noted.

This is terrible. The myth of the MMR vaccine causing autism has been thoroughly debunked, and yet it is still pervasive in society. To risk your child to contract potentially deadly diseases (or pass them on to other children) because of personal objections is irresponsible.