Whooping cough outbreak ‘a stark reminder’ of decline in vaccinations among Kentucky kids

Free vaccines are available in Kentucky at public health departments and private medical offices through the Vaccines for Children program. (Getty Images)

Kentucky’s outbreak of whooping cough comes amid a decline in childhood vaccinations, which a health insurance industry group is looking to combat by funding a messaging campaign to address vaccine hesitancy and increase immunization rates.

“This outbreak is a stark reminder of what can happen when immunization rates fall,” Tom Stevens, the president of the Kentucky Association of Health Plans (KAHP), told reporters on a call Tuesday. “It’s not just about individual protection. It’s about community immunity.”

In response to the problem, KAHP is giving Kentucky Voices for Health $360,000 over the next three years to spend primarily on public service commercials for television and radio.  The grant money will be split into $120,000 per year.

Kentucky has more cases of the highly contagious whooping cough than it has since 2019. There are no known deaths as of July 23. Of Kentucky’s 2024 cases, four infants, one school-aged child and three adults have been hospitalized, according to the cabinet.

Most cases are in children of school-going age, though some cases are in infants — who are most at risk for complications — toddlers and adults, according to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

Meanwhile, Kentucky’s low rate of vaccination “puts our children at unnecessary risk and it strains our health care system,” Stevens said.

“Immunizations are one of the most effective public health interventions we have,” he said. “They protect our children from preventable diseases and help maintain the overall health of our communities.”

The nonprofit will measure its campaign success on a few factors, according to Kelly Taulbee, the director of communications and development for Kentucky Voices for Health. Those include an increase in school-aged children getting vaccinated and a decrease in the number of kids sick and hospitalized.

The COVID effect

Taulbee pointed to the “polarization” of the COVID-19 pandemic as setting vaccinations back during a time many children stayed home from in-person schooling and other events.

After COVID-19 vaccines hit the market in late 2020, myths quickly spread about the shots. In early 2022, Volunteers of America told The Courier Journal that social media -fueled misinformation was a driving force behind lower-than-desirable vaccine rates across Kentucky.

Misinformation persists in 2024, when Kentucky lawmakers made false claims about vaccines during the legislative session.

“Kentucky has still not recovered to pre-pandemic levels” of vaccination,” Taulbee said. “That drop in community immunity is fueling the return of these vaccine-preventable illnesses like measles and pertussis .”

And, she said, “families really can no longer afford to treat these diseases and the vaccines that can prevent their spread as an afterthought.”

In 2022 the World Health Organization blamed the pandemic for the biggest drop in childhood vaccinations in 30 years.

The National Library of Medicine also published a paper in 2024 that blamed a “resurgence of measles cases” on “decades of false claims of vaccine adverse events that have included a misleading association with autism, vaccine complacency and hesitancy, and reduced childhood vaccination rates during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.”

How accessible are vaccines in Kentucky?

During the 2024 legislative session, Russell Republican Rep. Danny Bentley got a law passed that makes it easier for children to get routine vaccinations .

House Bill 274, which allows Kentucky pharmacies to continue administering vaccines to children ages 5-17 with parental or guardian consent, went into effect this month.

“It’s such a simpler access point that we want families to keep in mind,” Taulbee said. “Everybody’s busy. It is a go-go-go, six-second paced life and so if it’s easy for you to pick up dinner, pop into Walgreens and get your child shots on the way home, it’s a lot easier for some families instead of having to take off work and run around town and get to places before they close at 4, 4:30.”

People can also call the Kentucky Infectious Disease and Vaccine Call Center at 855-598-2246 for help finding a provider, Taulbee said.

“And please, never ever look at cost to be an issue,” she added. Most childhood vaccines can be received for free — from Kentucky’s public health departments or private medical providers — through the Vaccines for Children program, which is federally funded and was launched in 1993.

“We want to make sure,” Taulbee said, “that every Kentucky student has the best possible start to the new school year and is ready for success both inside and outside of the classroom.”

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