Study lists New Hampshire as 3rd most vaxed state

With vaccines preventing 4 to 5 million deaths per year according to the WHO, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2022's States that Vaccinate the Mostas well as expert commentary.

In order to find out which states vaccinate most, WalletHub analyzed the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 17 key metrics, ranging from the share of vaccinated children to the share of people without health insurance to the flu vaccination rate among adults.

Vaccination in New Hampshire (1=Best; 25=Avg.):

• 12^th - Influenza Vaccination Rate in Children Aged 6 Months to 17 Years Old
• 9^th - Share of Teenagers Aged 13-17 with Up-To-Date HPV Vaccination
• 23^rd - Share of Teenagers Aged 13-17 with MenACWY Vaccination
• 3^rd - Flu Vaccination Coverage Rate Among Adults
• 3^rd - Share of Adults with Tetanus Vaccination
• 11^th - Share of Adults Aged 60 and Older with Zoster Vaccination
• 11^th - Share of Children 19-35 Months old Living in Poverty with Combined 7-Vaccine Series
• 16^th - Share of Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population without Health Insurance Coverage

For the full report, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-that-vaccinate-the-most/66237

Expert Commentary

What are the steps local authorities can take in order to counter the current anti-vaccination trend?

"The most important step authorities can take in order to ensure wide vaccination compliance is to enforce existing laws that mandate diphtheria, tetanus, DTaP, IPV, MMR, and varicella vaccination as a condition for enrolment and attendance at childcare facilities and schools. Schools and public health authorities can do more than just mandate and enforce vaccination requirements. They should also actively advocate for the adoption of vaccination. School systems should send reminders to parents each school year that children should be vaccinated against HPV, influenza and COVID-19...Parents need to know how effective and safe vaccines are at preventing illness in their children. Schools should provide in-school vaccination programs."
Purnima Madhivanan, MBBS, MPH, PhD - Associate Professor, University of Arizona

"I am a big advocate for widespread, positive, and fact-driven public health messaging. Today, that is more essential than ever due to the misinformation and ubiquitous nature of social media falsities. It seems too simple, but I believe it is undervalued how powerful good widespread messaging can be. Show the stats on how many people are in the hospital with a disease that can be prevented with vaccination, interview a runner with long COVID on oxygen who has not worked out in two years, and talk to a family who has lost someone. Advertise locations for quick and easy vaccination. Then blast it everywhere on social media, billboards, TV sports games, etc. Get celebrity endorsements. Counter the negativity with facts."
Tatiana Bailey, Ph.D. - Director of UCCS Economic Forum; Assistant Professor Attendant Rank, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs

Is the introduction of a 'No jab, No school' policy that requires mandatory vaccination at school entry necessary in the U.S.?

"Many states and school districts have already adopted such measures around the country for a variety of diseases, so this is not necessarily a new idea. Where it has been introduced, it can be an effective means of encouraging herd immunity in a population. One recent multi-country analysis, for instance, concluded that countries 'would strongly benefit from the introduction of compulsory vaccination at school entry in addition to current routine immunization programmes... to reach stable herd immunity levels in the next decades.'"
Paul Perrin, PhD, MPH - Director of Evidence and Learning; Associate Professor, University of Notre Dame

"I believe making vaccinations mandatory for schools is a great idea. When I was in school, a number of vaccinations were required to attend public school. But local governments have given in to the vocal few whose selfishness and usually uninformed views harm public health. People can home school or send their children to private schools if they cannot bear the burden of contributing to the public good and public health. We are taking the easy way by yielding to such ignorance and the at-risk students and their families pay the price. Opponents like to shout about freedom, but all freedom has costs. Furthermore, there are costs associated with being part of a civilized society. Too many people are willing to put their own needs ahead of the public good and make society less civilized."
W. Timothy Coombs - Crisis Communication Researcher; Professor, Texas A&M University

What role does the media play in educating the public when it comes to vaccination hesitancy? The media often presents both sides of an argument as "equal" even though the science lies on only one of those sides.

"I think this is changing somewhat, but in the past, the media's practice was to present both sides of any argument as equal in value. I believe the media needs to be clearer when, for example, 99% of healthcare providers and public health professionals recommend immunization (it might be higher than that!) and a movie star with no training is propagating untruths. These two sides of the argument are not equal. Social media needs to take responsibility for the inaccuracies and misinformation on their sites."
Catherine Troisi, Ph.D. - Infectious Disease Epidemiologist, UTHealth School of Public Health in Houston

"The media plays a huge role. If things are portrayed positively and are fact-based, then the media can help proliferate that critical information that can save lives. That is true for vaccination for many different diseases. But with the advent of so many different media sources and the push to sell advertising and the concomitant need to increase user traffic, media does not always portray the truth. They can portray what sells. In this regard, I believe that we need to have stricter government controls with hefty fines alongside literal shutdowns of platforms that do not adhere to filtering out falsities. Many experts say that a simple way to greatly reduce the amount of vitriol and misinformation is to require that people have user names tied to their actual identities. That anonymity has actually hurt us."
Tatiana Bailey, Ph.D. - Director of UCCS Economic Forum; Assistant Professor Attendant Rank, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs