As state considers vaccine changes, new online tool examines sickness, death, cost impacts

Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health released an expanded VaxImpactMap tool that estimates hospitalizations, deaths and economic costs from declining childhood vaccination rates, now covering six diseases including varicella, pertussis and RSV. It arrives as Florida's Department of Health moves to drop four vaccine requirements, including varicella and Hib, for school and daycare entry, with a rule-making workshop held in Lake Mary. Lead researcher Ben Lopman says the tool was built to give policymakers and the public tangible estimates rather than to advocate a position.

The dashboard projects that a 10% five-year decline in Texas's varicella vaccination rate could add 30,700 chickenpox cases, 277 hospitalizations, three deaths and $66.7 million in costs; a similar decline in California would produce roughly a third of those numbers. Lopman notes Florida already has lower baseline coverage than many states, meaning further declines there carry outsized risk because of herd immunity thresholds.

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