UN Says Global Child Vaccination Rates Below Pre-Pandemic Levels

Childhood vaccination rates stalled worldwide in 2023, the United Nations said in a new report, finding that some 2.7 million more children have not received shots as compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic. A report issued Monday by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) focused on vaccines targeting measles, as well as other illnesses targeted by childhood shots such as diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis—also known as whooping cough. Last year, some 84 percent of all children surveyed, or 108 million, received three doses of the diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTAP) vaccine, according to WHO and UNICEF. The 2023 rate was the same as the 2022 vaccination rate, the U.N. agencies said, noting that the DTAP vaccination rate was 86 percent in 2019, a year before the pandemic started....