Where Colorado Ranks Compared to Rest of U.S. in Vaccination Numbers
Nowadays, whenever someone mentions vaccinations, it seems to always be in reference to COVID vaccines. However, for years, modern medicine has made incredible contributions to health and science with the development of vaccines for several, now preventable ailments.
It's always curious to hear the different outlooks about medicine and vaccinations. Usually, the opinions seem to vary state by state. WalletHub ran a study to find out what states vaccinate the most across the board.
They looked at numbers of children, whose vaccination status will depend on their parents' personal viewpoints, as well as people who don't have health insurance and how that may impact their vaccination numbers. Out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Colorado broke the top 20.
Ranking at number 18, Colorado seemed pretty middle-of-the-road when it was assessed on the different metrics WalletHub used for the study. Out of a total score of 100 possible points, Colorado scored a 60.40. In comparison, Massachusetts is the number one state that vaccinates with a score of 85.59.
According to WalletHub, the importance of the study is to show how much educating they believe needs to be done to change the vaccination numbers in several U.S. states, especially in light of the COVID pandemic.
Henna Budhwani, Ph.D, MPH, and Assistant Professor for the School of Public Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham was quoted by WalletHub with her suspicions of what COVID-19 has done to the views on vaccinations.
Budhwani only spoke indirectly, as she admitted she does not definitively know, saying that new societal norms had been established by a few people in the pandemic. When that happens, those tend to affect and alter existing views and belief systems.
Several of the experts WalletHub consulted said that it comes down to trust. If local authorities and global entities can work on trusting relationships with the general population, there might be an overall better outlook on getting vaccinated.