{"id":331364,"date":"2026-08-27T21:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T21:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/331364\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T21:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T21:58:08","slug":"why-jefferson-countys-measles-vaccination-rate-is-so-low","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/331364\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Jefferson County\u2019s measles vaccination rate is so low"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) &#8211; Jefferson County\u2019s measles vaccination rate of 58.4% lags well behind the state rate of 80.9%. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Why is it so low? According to Jefferson County Public Health Service officials, it\u2019s because Fort Drum\u2019s military population is not included in the data. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Stephen Jennings, director of county public health, said the federal government keeps track of the vaccinations of military dependents &#8211; children between the ages of 1 and 18.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Jennings says the state has repeatedly tried to obtain measles vaccination data from the federal government, but has never gotten it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThe state and federal systems do not marry up. We\u2019ve been working on that for years to try to convince federal authorities to input their data in the state system, so we have it, but they have not. And that\u2019s why we appear to have a low rate, but that is not accurate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">New York state requires that children entering or attending public, private, or parochial schools and daycares show proof of immunity to measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR).<\/p>\n<p>Concerns come amid statewide measles outbreak<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The public health service says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wwnytv.com\/2026\/08\/26\/measles-cases-rising-rural-new-york-says-jefferson-co-public-health\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wwnytv.com\/2026\/08\/26\/measles-cases-rising-rural-new-york-says-jefferson-co-public-health\/\">measles cases<\/a> in rural areas of New York state are increasing,<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To date, New York has 29 confirmed cases; 23 of those are outside of New York City.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">So far, there are no confirmed cases in Jefferson, Lewis or St. Lawrence counties.<\/p>\n<p>Health officials outline the recommended vaccine schedule<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Health officials are worried the outbreak could spread, and say if you were not vaccinated as a child, you should consider getting doses now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cChildren need two doses, and adults need two doses to get protection for life. First dose is between 12 and 15 months, recommended. Second dose is between four years and six years,\u201d said Jennings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Lewis County and St. Lawrence County both have vaccination rates close to 78%.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WWNY. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) &#8211; Jefferson County\u2019s measles vaccination rate of 58.4% lags well behind the state rate&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61118,22497,124702,661,9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-331364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-fort-drum","tag-jefferson-county","tag-measles-vaccination-rate","tag-military","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}