Question: Recognizing that COVID vaccination rates among children ages 5-11 are still low nationally, I’m curious, do rates vary by state?  More specifically, do states with high vaccination rates among adults also see high(er) rates among children? 

Answer: Using data from the NY Times, I made a scatter plot to answer your question (Figure 1).  The X axis is % of 18-64 year olds fully vaccinated and the Y axis is % of 5-11 year olds fully vaccinated.  As you can see, there is a close, statistically significant correlation between the two (R-squared is 78%; e.g. 78% of the variance in vaccination rates among 5-11 year olds is explained by vaccination trends among adults).  Unsurprisingly, states with higher rates of vaccinations among 18-64 year olds also see higher rates among 5-11 year olds.  Given the political dynamics of vaccine uptake in the US, I also color coded each dot according to whether the state’s 2020 presidential electoral votes went to the Democrat or Republican candidate.  

Figure 1. Vaccinations by Age and State