This city is hailed as a vaccination success. Can it be sustained?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — On his first day of school at Newcomer Academy, Maikel Tejeda was whisked to the school library. The 7th grader didn’t know why.

He soon got the point: He was being given make-up vaccinations. Five of them. “I don’t have a problem with that,” said the 12-year-old, who moved from Cuba early this year.

Across the library, a group of city, state and federal officials gathered to celebrate the school clinic, and the city. With U.S.

childhood vaccination rates below their goals, Louisville and the state were being praised as success stories: Kentucky’s vaccination rate for kindergarteners rose 2 percentage points in the 2022-2023 school year compared with the year before. The rate for Jefferson County — which is Louisville — was up 4 percentage points. “Progress is success,” said Dr.

Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But that progress didn’t last. Kentucky’s school entry vaccination rate .

Jefferson County’s rate slid, too. And the rates for both the county and state remain well below the . It raises the question: If this is what success looks like, what does it say about the nation’s ability to stop imported infections from turning into community outbreaks? Local officials believe they can get to herd immunity thresholds, but they acknowledge challenges that includes tight funding, misinformation and well-intended bureaucratic rules that can discourage doctors from giving kids shots.

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