A new government report provides compelling evidence of the effectiveness of childhood vaccines, showing that routine immunizations have prevented hundreds of millions of illnesses, tens of millions of hospitalizations and more than a million deaths among Americans over the past 30 years.
The new data, released Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, analyzes the benefits of the CDC’s Vaccines for Children program, which was launched in 1994 to make vaccinations more affordable and accessible for children.
The research findings are “proof of the success” of vaccines in preventing disease, Dr. Sara Siddiqui, a pediatrician at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone in New York, told CNN.
“These are vaccinations that are currently recommended as part of the childhood immunization series and are also offered at a reduced cost under the Vaccines For Children program. I am very pleased and grateful that this study is being conducted to demonstrate the health benefits of vaccination as a means of disease prevention,” Siddiqui added.
“My job as a pediatrician is to keep children healthy and keep them out of the hospital. Vaccinations are one way to keep children healthy and prevent serious illnesses,” she added. “I encourage all parents to talk regularly with their pediatrician about each vaccination their child should get, as well as the specific illness it would help prevent.”
In the new CDC study, researchers from the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases quantified the health benefits and economic impact of routine vaccinations among children born in the United States since 1994.
Nine vaccines were included in the analysis: diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTaP); Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib); poliovirus; measles, mumps, and rubella; hepatitis B; varicella; hepatitis A; pneumococcal conjugate, and rotavirus. Some other common vaccines, including influenza, COVID-19, and RSV vaccines, were not included in the analysis.
What did they find? Among about 117 million children born between 1994 and 2023, routine vaccinations prevented about 508 million cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations, and just over a million deaths.
The number of cases of disease prevented in the study ranged from about 5,000 cases of tetanus to about 100 million cases of measles and chickenpox.
The largest estimated cumulative number of hospitalizations and deaths prevented was about 13.2 million hospitalizations for measles and about 752,800 deaths for diphtheria, the researchers wrote.
Their analysis also found that routine childhood vaccinations saved $540 billion in direct costs (such as treating an infection) and $2.7 trillion in societal costs (such as parents being unable to work while caring for a sick child).
The Vaccines for Children (VFC) program was created to provide free vaccines to eligible people under 18. Last year, more than half – about 54% – of children were eligible to be vaccinated under the program, the report said.
“VFC plays an important role in maintaining high childhood vaccination coverage by reducing barriers to access, particularly in geographic areas and among populations that have historically had lower vaccination coverage, such as children living in rural areas,” the researchers, led by Fangjun Zhou, wrote in their report.
“Vaccination programs may consider expanding their provider network by utilizing non-traditional vaccine providers such as pharmacies in areas where access is deemed inadequate,” they added. “In addition, reminders, provider ratings and feedback, and client reminder and call-back systems remain important methods to reduce missed vaccination opportunities.”
During the pandemic, routine childhood vaccination rates in the United States declined due to limited access to primary health care and the spread of misinformation, leading to vaccine skepticism.
But the United States was not the only country to see declines in vaccination rates during the pandemic: Data released in July by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) showed that the world has still not recovered.
For example, global vaccination coverage against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP3) was 84% in 2023, the same as in 2022 but below the 86% in 2019.
Further information:
Fangjun Zhou et al., Health and economic benefits of routine childhood immunization in the era of the Vaccines for Children program – United States, 1994–2023, MMWR. Weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report (2024). DOI: 10.15585/mmwr.mm7331a2
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