QUESTION
What is the importance of the 95% measles vaccination target for achieving herd immunity?
0:20:58
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89 sec
Dr. Celia Quinn explains that achieving the 95% vaccination rate for measles is crucial for preventing its spread and protecting vulnerable community members.
- Communities need a specific level of vaccination to prevent disease spread and protect unvaccinable members.
- The required vaccination rate varies by disease; measles requires at least 95% coverage to achieve herd immunity.
- Lower vaccination rates increase the risk of outbreaks, particularly in places like New York City that have high travel activity.
- High vaccination coverage is essential for preventing disease introduction and spread in densely populated and high-mobility areas.
Francisco P. Moya
0:20:58
And when it comes to community transmission nationally, the data collected and aggregated annually by the CDC from state and local programs found that in 2021 to 2022 school year, the national MMR vaccine rate amongst kindergarten students fell below the healthy people 2030 target of 95%.
0:21:21
The level needed to prevent community transmission of measles.
0:21:23
Can you please describe the importance of that 95% target and how states failing to reach that target impacts community transmission of measles nationally?
Dr. Celia Quinn
0:21:34
Yeah.
0:21:34
Thanks again for that question.
0:21:35
So You're right.
0:21:37
Communities need to reach a certain level of vaccination to prevent the spread of a disease within the community and to protect the members of that community that might not be able to be vaccinated themselves like we spoke about a little bit earlier.
0:21:49
And that population coverage is sometimes referred to as herd immunity.
0:21:53
So the number that you need to achieve to reach that is dependent on how infectious the disease is.
0:21:59
Hence, for measles, we would need about 95% and coverage to reach that herd immunity level.
0:22:04
But wherever there are pockets of lower vaccine coverage, the risk of an outbreak is going to increase depending on how low that coverage gets.
0:22:12
And so for a place like New York City where we have a lot of travel from outside of the US and from other places, That increases our risk of having measles introduced, and hence, they need to have a really high level of coverage for our communities.
Francisco P. Moya
0:22:24
So I'm gonna go into now locally here.