Researchers examined global vaccination coverage for two important childhood vaccines: the first dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine and the first dose of measles vaccine. They compared coverage rates from 2021 and 2022 to the levels seen in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began. The study used worldwide data, but the exact number of children included was not reported.
The main finding was that global vaccination coverage improved from 2021 to 2022. For the DTP vaccine, coverage rose from 86% to 89%. For the measles vaccine, it increased from 81% to 84%. However, for both vaccines, the 2022 coverage rate was still lower than it was in 2019. Before the pandemic, DTP coverage was 90% and measles coverage was 86%.
This study did not report on any safety concerns related to the vaccines themselves. The main reason to be careful with these results is that this is observational data. It simply tracks what happened; it does not prove what caused the changes in vaccination rates. The data also did not include important details like exact numbers of children or statistical confidence intervals.
Readers should realistically take away that while there was a positive trend in global vaccination coverage in 2022, recovery from the pandemic's disruption is not yet complete. The data shows progress but also highlights that more work is needed to get back to pre-pandemic protection levels for children worldwide.
