JACKSON, Miss.—Mississippi no longer has the highest rate of childhood vaccinations in the country, falling from first to third place between 2023 and 2024 after a federal judge ruled that the state must allow religious exemptions for childhood vaccinations.
Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney announced the decline during a press conference in the Mississippi Capitol Building on Tuesday.
Before the 2023 decision, Mississippi was one of six states that did not allow religious exemptions for childhood vaccines. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi Judge Sul Ozerden’s order said that the Mississippi State Department of Health “will be enjoined from enforcing (Mississippi’s compulsory vaccination law) unless they provide an option for individuals to request a religious exemption from the vaccine requirement.” Republican President George W. Bush appointed Ozerden to the court in 2007.
Mississippi’s mandatory childhood vaccinations include immunization for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis; for polio; for hepatitis B; for measles, mumps and rubella; and for chickenpox. But because of Ozerden’s 2023 ruling, parents can now submit a form to have their children exempted on the basis of religious beliefs.
In 2024, 97.5% of Mississippi schoolchildren were vaccinated, which is still above the national average of 91%. But it’s down from 99.3% in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic kicked off an anti-vaccine fervor.
“I am concerned about vaccinations. We have fallen below the national average for vaccines for children at age 24 months,” Edney said at the press conference. “We do catch back up with our school-aged children. We have, as you know, led the nation for a long time because of our very strong public health law in Mississippi for vaccines for our school-aged children.”
Mississippi No Longer The Unhealthiest State
During the press conference, Dr. Edney presented the Mississippi State Department of Health’s and the Mississippi State Medical Association’s “2024 Public Health Report Card.” He said he was proud to report that Mississippi was seeing improving health outcomes despite the downward trend of vaccine rates.
Mississippi is no longer the unhealthiest state in the U.S., rising to 49th place in 2024 and surpassing West Virginia, which is now in 50th place.
“I refuse to be defeatist about where we are in health. I know that we can move from 49th to 40th to 35th to 30th just as we’ve done in education. It will not happen by itself. If we continue to work together with those at the Legislature, our elected leadership, our health-care community and our partners in state government, with the Department of Health doing our part, we will make Mississippi healthier,” Edney said.
Infant mortality has had “modest trends downward” after a challenging 2021 but Mississippi continues to lead in infant deaths, the state health officer said, adding that MSDH has more work to do in that area but that he was “grateful” infant deaths are gradually decreasing. He noted that maternal deaths decreased in the state in 2024, moving Mississippi from 50th to 45th place.
“We are actively constructing a system of care for high-risk pregnant women. That will really help to provide some very unique protections for high-risk women and babies during that golden period of labor and delivery and immediately after birth to make sure moms are delivering at the right level, at the right time, the right way,” he said.
The Magnolia State is also continuing to show improvements in opioid overdose deaths, HIV rates and tuberculosis cases, three areas MSDH has heavily targeted in recent years, Edney said.
Opioid-related deaths continue to decline after hitting a record high in 2021 of 787 deaths to 496 deaths in 2023, MSDH data shows.
“We’re one of the very few states that’s demonstrated a reduction in opioid deaths for the last two years, and I’m extremely proud of that,” Edney said.
Although the state has made some strides in public health, the state health officer said Mississippians continue to die at an earlier age than the national average of 75. Now, more people are dying than are being born in the state: MSDH’s 2024 data shows 34,040 Mississippians died while 33,310 Mississippians were born. He said heart disease, malignancy and accidents continue to be Mississippi’s top three causes of death. Children are more likely to die due to an accident than any other cause, he added.
“We now have more Mississippians dying than we have being born. This is a correctable number by reducing our preventable death rate. We continue to lead the country in preventable deaths, meaning Mississippians die every year unnecessarily, more than anywhere else in the country,” Edney said.
Trump Actions Raise Concern for Health Funding
On Monday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to temporarily pause federal grants and loans that was set to start at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 28, sparking confusion nationwide. A judge temporarily paused the order before it was set to take effect Tuesday.
At the press conference on Tuesday, Edney said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has not relayed any information to MSDH leaders about the freeze. A federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s order on Jan. 28 just hours before it was set to go into effect.
“The Department of Health receives 70% of our budget from federal dollars, so this is a large concern for us. The federal funding is extremely important for the public health work in Mississippi,” he said.
Trump also withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization and ordered all federal health agencies to halt outside communication through Feb. 1. Dr. Jennifer Bryan, the president of the Mississippi State Medical Association, said she and other doctors in the state are staying up-to-date with the latest orders.
“I don’t know what they’re going to do, but what I’m most concerned about is the health of Mississippi. What I can tell you right now is you’re in good hands and that we have access to what we need, but certainly, that is always very helpful when those publications roll in and I would look for those to start rolling in in the coming weeks,” she said at the press conference.
In Washington D.C. on Wednesday, U.S. senators were questioning Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy, who is the son of the late Democrat Robert F. Kennedy, has a long history of promoting health-related conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine myths.