Amid vaccine rate drop, health officials talk benefits, address fears

As the 2025-26 school year begins, state health officials and doctors held a news conference on the importance of childhood vaccinations and addressed vaccine skepticism head-on. The online news conference was hosted Tuesday by the Ohio Department of Health, and the discussion touched on declining vaccination rates, the safety of vaccines and the potential benefits of immunization against human papillomavirus, or HPV. Ohio has five vaccinations that are required for students before they start kindergarten: the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine, the DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) vaccine and the polio, Hepatitis B and Varicella (chickenpox) vaccines. "While the majority of Ohio's kids do reach kindergarten having completed all their required vaccines, we have unfortunately seen some decline in vaccination rates in the past few years, both in Ohio and across the nation," Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, director of the Ohio Department of Health, said in the press conference. Vanderhoff said that the vaccine compliance rate among kindergartners has dropped by 4.5 percent in the past five years, from 89.9 percent in the 2019-20 school year to 85.4 percent heading into the 2025-26 school year. "That means that thousands fewer incoming kindergartners are protected against the range of diseases that these vaccines prevent," Vanderhoff said. "Vaccines have proven over time to be safe and effective. They are so effective in fact, that some diseases have been determined to be eliminated in the United States. … But these diseases can be, and have been, reintroduced into the United States, underlining the importance of fully vaccinating your child." Lorain County Public Health Director Mark Adams said that most school districts in Lorain County do have higher vaccination rates than the state average, with several exceeding 90 percent compliance this school year. However, southern Lorain County is experiencing an outbreak of pertussis, better known as whooping cough, which is one of the diseases covered by the required childhood vaccinations. Vanderhoff discussed measles specifically during the news conference, a respiratory disease that was once considered all but eliminated in the U.S. but caused an outbreak in Texas and other parts of the country this year, including Ohio. Ohio's measles outbreak is officially over, with only one Ohioan needing to be hospitalized with the disease. Of the 35 Ohioans who contracted measles during the outbreak, 33 of them were unvaccinated, and the other two had unknown vaccination statuses. Nationally, the outbreak saw 1,375 measles cases across the country as of Aug. 19, leading to 133 hospitalizations and three deaths. Ninety-two percent of infected individuals were either unvaccinated or who had unknown vaccine status. "Clearly, measles can still afflict any of us, and particularly those who are unvaccinated," Vanderhoff said. The state also requires a second measles vaccination before students enter seventh grade, and Vanderhoff said receiving both shots gives people 97 percent protection against the disease. Vaccine fears Vanderhoff acknowledged that a growing number of Ohioans have expressed skepticism or fear about vaccines, particularly those for children, and he asked Dr. Amy Edwards, who specializes in pediatric infectious diseases at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, to address those concerns. "I know right now there is a rumor going around … that vaccines don't undergo safety trials," Edwards said. "I don't know who started that, I don't know why it is spreading, but that is not true. All vaccines that are approved for use by the FDA in the United States have to undergo phase one, phase two and phase three trials, and each of these trials has a safety component to it." Additionally, Edwards said that after any vaccine has been approved for use, it has constant post-approval safety monitoring that is sourced from recipients of vaccines and their families. This means each shot has safety data from both prior to approval and into the future. Edwards said that thousands of studies from across the world featuring millions of kids have shown that all the vaccines Ohio requires are both effective and safe. "(These studies) all uniformly show that vaccines are very, very, very safe," she said. "Most adverse events are things like pain at the site of injections, things like swelling, redness (and) low-grade fever. Even that is not universal; most kids don't have side effects at all. Very severe adverse effects that might require medical attention are exceedingly, exceedingly rare." HPV Vanderhoff and Edwards also both spoke specifically about the benefits of HPV vaccinations and misinformation surrounding the shot. The HPV vaccination is not required in Ohio, but the state and the Centers for Disease Control say vaccination can be started at age 9 and is recommended by ages 11 or 12. Vanderhoff said the vaccination rate for HPV among those between 13 and 17 years of age is about 63 percent both in Ohio and the U.S. Most cases of HPV are unnoticeable and are worked out by the immune system within one or two years, Vanderhoff says. In other cases though, the disease remains and can eventually cause warts and eventually various types of cancers. The most common cancers caused by HPV occur in the cervix and genital areas, but it can also cause head and neck cancers, known as oropharyngeal cancers. Vanderhoff said the disease is thought to cause between 60 percent and 70 percent of oropharyngeal cancers, which occur mostly in men over the age of 50. The CDC estimates that being vaccinated for HPV prior to first exposure to the disease can prevent 90 percent of both cervical and oropharyngeal cancers. "That is a striking statistic, and the strongest evidence I can think of that parents should have their children immunized against this virus. In short, it is a powerful cancer prevention tool," Vanderhoof said. "The HPV vaccine is amazing," Edwards said. "... Australia has one of the highest uptake rates of the HPV vaccine, and they are actually on track to eliminate cervical cancer by 2036. Eliminate. I don't think anybody was expecting that, but it is amazing, the effects that they are seeing." Edwards said that such declines in cervical cancer were common everywhere in the world where the HPV vaccine is widely administered. The vaccine can be more than 90 percent effective, but only if it is administered prior to first exposure to the virus. The state recommends children undergo the vaccine by ages 11 or 12 and vaccinations can be given as early as 9. Rumors of safety concerns Despite its scientifically proven benefits, claims doubting the efficacy and safety of the HPV vaccine have become widespread, particularly online. "In particular the HPV vaccine has gotten something of a bad rap, in the safety, anti-vax world," Edwards said. "I'm not sure exactly why that is, I don't know why people are so passionate about trying to prevent people from getting the HPV vaccine. But just as any vaccine would, the HPV vaccine went through phase one, phase two and phase three trials prior to FDA approval. All three of those phases included safety monitoring." Edwards said monitoring has highlighted only one adverse reaction scientifically tied to HPV vaccination; same-day syncope, the medical term for fainting, in teenage patients. Edwards said that passing out is a common safety marker among all vaccines that are administered to teenagers, and that teenagers are more likely to pass out than other groups of people "for a whole host of development reasons." The same effect on teenagers is seen when they have their blood drawn. Possibly because of HPV's connection to cervical cancer, many have expressed beliefs or fears that the vaccine could negatively impact fertility. The reality, Edward said, is just the opposite. "You will hear rumors about (HPV vaccination causing) infertility, that is not true," she said. "In fact, the data shows that the HPV vaccine improves fertility because cervical cancer can decrease fertility. … Actually, vaccinated girls are more likely to be able to carry a pregnancy to term because they don't get cervical cancer." The most serious allegation leveled against the HPV vaccine is that it, itself, can cause death in teenagers who receive it. "There's another rumor, I don't know how this one got started, that the HPV vaccine has killed teenagers; that is absolutely and categorically false. There is no teenager that has died from the HPV vaccine ever, anywhere in the world; I want to make that very clear." Over 15 years of monitoring and tens of millions of doses given, neither the CDC of the World Health Organization, or WHO, has ever found a reported death associated with the administration of the HPV vaccine. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.