With vaccines prevent somewhere between 4 to 5 million deaths worldwide per year, according to the World Health Organization immunisation data. Despite the scientific backing, pockets of anti-vaccine resistance or hesitancy, often buttressed by misinformation, exist and the pattern for this can be uneven. This places governments and aid agencies with particular problems and with the need to develop appropriate strategies to counter some of the ignorance as to vaccine efficacy.
One such country with considerable variability is the U.S. This has been drawn out through a survey conducted by the personal-finance website WalletHub. This takes the form of a report on 2023’s States that Vaccinate the Most.
In order to find out which states vaccinate most, WalletHub analysed the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 16 key metrics, ranging from the share of vaccinated children to the share of people without health insurance to the flu vaccination rate among adults.
This led to the following outcomes:
States that Vaccinate Most
1. Massachusetts
2. Rhode Island
3. Iowa
4. Vermont
5. Connecticut
6. Washington
7. North Dakota
8. Wisconsin
9. New Hampshire
10. Colorado
States that Vaccinate Least
42. West Virginia
43. Alabama
44. Nevada
45. Texas
46. Oklahoma
47. Wyoming
48. Georgia
49. Arizona
50. Alaska
51. Mississippi
Delving below the headline data there are some interesting differences. Massachusetts has the highest influenza vaccination coverage for children at 78 percent. This is 2.1 times higher than in Wyoming, the state with the lowest at 38 percent.
Taking a different vaccine, Minnesota has the highest share of adults with the tetanus vaccination, 83 percent, which is 1.5 times higher than in New Jersey, the state with the lowest at 54 percent.
With another vaccine, South Dakota has the highest share of adults aged 60 and older with the zoster vaccination, 55 percent. This level is 2.1 times higher than in Mississippi, the state with the lowest at 26percent. Another important variable is with poverty. The data reveals that Minnesota has the highest share of children 19 to 35 months old living in poverty with the combined 7-vaccine series, 84percent. This proportion is 1.7 times higher than in California, the state with the lowest at just 51 percent.
