Portions of Western Mass. lack herd immunity from measles, data says
Vaccination rates for kindergartners in three Western Massachusetts counties have dropped below what is necessary to secure herd immunity against measles, according to data released last week by the Washington Post.
About 93.8% of kindergarteners in Hampden County have received the two doses of the vaccine to guard against measles, mumps and rubella. Meanwhile, 91.5% are vaccinated in Franklin County, and 91.8% are vaccinated in Berkshire County, according to data .
For measles, a vaccination rate of at least 95% protects the community overall through herd immunity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Broad swaths of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and all of Connecticut have vaccination rates above 95%. In the Bay State, however, vaccination rates have also dipped in Suffolk County and on Nantucket, according to the Post.
Public health officials said the vaccination rates in Western Massachusetts means they will continue to work to address vaccine confidence in the region. They also noted that with a smaller population of kindergarteners in some parts of the region, the decisions by a small number of families can cause swings in the vaccination rates.
"Our biggest battle now is there's a lot of misinformation and confusion," said Jessica Collins, executive director of Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts. While local health officials often seek out members of the community who can serve as spokespeople for vaccination, she said pediatricians and school nurses serve as "critical messengers."
This week, the Healey administration criticized the Trump administration's announcement it was dropping a handful of vaccines from the 17 traditionally recommended that children receive, describing the move as reckless.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., arrives on stage at the inaugural Make America Healthy Again summit at the Waldorf Astoria, Nov. 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., File)AP
"It abandons decades of rigorous, evidence-based science and replaces clear public health guidance with confusion and doubt," Dr. Robbie Goldstein, the state's public health commissioner, said in a statement Monday.
The measles vaccine is one that the CDC is continuing to recommend. But the change in the CDC's vaccine recommendation comes at a time when there have been instances of measles outbreaks around the country and the flu season this year has claimed the lives of children, Goldstein said.
In recent months, the state has authorized the Department of Public Health to issue its own vaccine recommendations, according to the statement Monday, and it has begun to work with other states to coordinate that effort.
Massachusetts saw no measles cases in 2025. In fact, it only saw one instance of the disease over the past five years, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Public Health.
For years, the number of students who have an exception from obtaining a vaccine either for medical or religious reasons have been higher in Franklin and Berkshire counties than the rest of the state, according to the spokesperson. The state will reach out to schools who report low vaccination rates among their students with information on the importance of vaccines and the dangers of measles.
In October, a handful of people in Westfield schools contracted chickenpox , leading to contract tracing and two-week quarantines for some students. Some of the schools in the district have some of the highest rates of vaccine exemptions in the state.
"Chickenpox can be fairly mild for most people ... The real fear is measles. We really hope we don't ever see that," said Fawne St. Pierre, the district's health and safety supervisor, in an interview at the time.
Some health officials have started to recommend an early, additional dose of MMR vaccine for children age 6 through 11 months traveling to any region with increased probability of measles exposure, whether international or domestic.Jim Goodson of the Global Immunization Division in the Center for Global Health
Phoebe Walker, director of community health for Franklin Regional Council of Governments, said society is not used to dealing with a disease as infectious as measles. If unvaccinated against the disease, nine out of 10 people near an infected person will contract it, according to the CDC.
Besides dealing with a lack of trust in vaccination among some residents, the 26-town region over which Walker works also faces rural challenges.
The region lacks pediatric practices, and a solo doctor focused on pediatric medicine might not have the cold storage facilities to keep the vaccines, or they might not have the number of patients to order a batch of vaccines, she said.
Furthermore, the pandemic shifted vaccine habits to where many people receive shots at a local pharmacy, but Walker says there's only a handful of pharmacies in her region, and some pharmacies don't perform vaccinations on children. "So there's a lot of layers of barriers," she said.
The vaccination rates are concerning, she said. That means both education and preparedness, Walker said, such as meeting with school nurses, building relationships and identifying schools that may be particularly vulnerable.
"Our rates are still good compared to other parts of the country," Walker said, "but these are terrifying times."
As of April 3, the CDC has been notified of 607 cases of measles in the U.S.— more than double the amount of cases the country saw in all of last year.CDC Public Health Image Library
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