Walk into almost any Utah pediatric or family medicine clinic and you will find the same thing: parents who want to vaccinate their children. These parents deserve a functioning system that makes it easy to follow their doctor’s advice, ask questions, get covered for the vaccines recommended and protect their kids without unnecessary obstacles.
That system is quietly being dismantled. And most Utah families have no idea it is happening.
Over the past year, federal health leaders have made a series of decisions that are making childhood vaccines harder to access for families across the country, including here in Utah. Vaccines that have been part of the routine childhood schedule for decades have been reclassified or restricted, meaning insurance coverage becomes uncertain.
Further, clinical reminders could disappear from electronic records and providers face new hurdles before administering them. The Vaccines for Children program, which has helped nearly half of all U.S. children receive vaccines for over 30 years, faces funding pressures that could leave low-income Utah families without access they have long relied on.
None of these changes came through the transparent, evidence-based process that vaccine policy has followed for more than 60 years. They came quickly and from the top down — without the input of independent scientific experts, without public comment and without the communities most affected having any say.
Utahns deserve to make their own health decisions, including decisions rooted in scientific evidence without government overreach. We should be concerned when legislators remove the infrastructure that supports families trying to protect their children from vaccine-preventable diseases. Vaccines must remain covered, recommended, accessible and backed by science rather than politics.
Utah saw firsthand this spring what happens when that infrastructure weakens. Our state became an epicenter for a measles outbreak at a moment when our MMR vaccination rate had already slipped below the 95% threshold needed to protect the most vulnerable — infants too young to be vaccinated, pregnant women and neighbors with compromised immune systems. Those gaps do not come only from families who choose not to vaccinate. They also come from families who face barriers: confusion about coverage, uncertainty about recommendations or simply a system that made acting on their choice harder than it should have been.
The Utah Public Health Association’s Immunization Advocacy Coalition is working alongside Utah’s legislators, health care providers, and families. We know that the vast majority of Utahns support vaccines. People want clarity, consistency and a government that does not stand in the way of preserving their children’s well-being.
Vaccination is a choice. Access to it should not be. Families deserve to know what their doctor recommends, and that it will still be covered, available and reflect the best science instead of the politics of the moment.
This month, take a few minutes to check your family’s vaccination records and confirm everyone is up to date. Talk to your health care provider about what is recommended for your children and for the people in your household. And if something has changed — a vaccine is no longer covered or a long-standing recommendation has suddenly shifted — ask questions. You deserve answers grounded in evidence.
Utah parents want to protect their children and with vaccines, we have the means to do so. Let’s make sure the system supports families who want to stay healthy and safe from vaccine-preventable diseases.