Lower Manhattan Toddlers Fall Short of Benchmark Needed for Measles Herd Immunity
Amid a measles outbreak (with three recent cases in New York City, one elsewhere in New York State, and 600-plus nationwide – more than double the tally for all of 2024), the City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOH) says that children in Lower Manhattan are being vaccinated at an average rate of 81.5 percent.
Evaluated by Downtown’s eight residential zip codes, the lowest rate of measles vaccination is in 10004 (West Street to the East River, south of Beaver Street), where 75 percent of children 24 to 35 months old have received the first dose of the two-shot regimen. (The first injection is recommended at 12 months, and is legally required for childcare programs.) This area is followed by 10280 (Battery Park City, between Liberty Street and Battery Place) and 10013 (northern Tribeca, north of Chambers Street and south of Canal Street), where 79 percent of kids in the same age bracket have been immunized.
The highest rate of local protection is in 10282 (northern Battery Park City, between Brookfield Place and Stuyvesant High School), where 92 percent of kids have received at least one injection. The Seaport neighborhood (10038) has a rate of 81 percent. In southern Tribeca (10007: West Street to Broadway, north of Vesey Street and south of Chambers Street), 82 percent are vaccinated. And 10005 (eastern FiDi: Broadway to the East River, south of Maiden Lane, north of Beaver Street) along with 10006 (Greenwich South: between Broadway and West Street, south of Vesey Street and north of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel) both have an 83 percent rate.
While the local average of 81.5 percent is slightly ahead of the citywide rate of 80 percent for children between 24 and 35 months, it still falls well short of the 95 percent threshold that immunologists say is needed for “herd immunity.”
A DOH representative points out that New York City children reach 98 percent vaccination rates by the time they reach kindergarten, adding, “vaccination not only protects the person who gets vaccinated but also increases community protection by helping stop the spread of the disease and protecting infants and others who cannot be vaccinated.”