Axios Twin Cities
August 20, 2026
1 big thing: Vaccination rates lag badly
Minnesota's kindergarten vaccination rates fell across the board during the 2025-26 school year, according to new CDC data released this week.
Why it matters: Minnesota is becoming one of the least-vaccinated states in the nation, with immunization rates among kids well below levels needed to curb outbreaks of preventable diseases.
The big picture: The CDC data show immunization rates fell nationwide, with more than 24 states — including Minnesota — reporting exemption rates rising above 5%.
- The dropoff coincides with the Trump administration's push for controversial vaccine policy changes and with measles cases hitting three-decade highs.
Zoom in: Last school year, Minnesota's kindergarten vaccination rate for diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough (DTaP) was worse than every state except Idaho.
- Only in Idaho and Wisconsin have smaller shares of kids received their polio; chickenpox; or measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccines.
By the numbers: The vaccination rate in Minnesota for all these diseases is roughly 86%.
- Around 92% of Minnesota kindergarteners are immunized against hepatitis B.
Plus: The share of Minnesota kids receiving medical or "personal belief" exemptions rose to 6.9%, almost twice the pre-pandemic rate.
What they're saying: "Skepticism of vaccines has increased since the pandemic, despite an abundance of evidence demonstrating that they are safe," Ben Christianson, an epidemiologist in the Minnesota Department of Health, tells Axios.
- Also a factor: "Many families got behind during the pandemic and have not caught up," Christianson says.
Between the lines: Polling shows childhood vaccines remain popular, but administration efforts to upend longstanding vaccine policies could further erode trust in vaccines and public health, medical experts say.
- President Trump last week signed an executive order calling for a slimmed-down childhood vaccine schedule and breaking the MMR vaccine into three separately administered shots.
What we're watching: Capital Alpha Partners analyst Kim Monk wrote in a note Monday that any official vaccine scheduling recommendations or policy changes stemming from the order are expected to be challenged in court.
- "We think it's likely that providers and stakeholder groups will continue to ignore this advice," Monk wrote, "although these developments certainly don't help with ongoing vaccine hesitancy."
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4. 💸 Stat du jour: Soaring ticket prices
Admission prices for movies, theaters and concerts in the U.S. have jumped more than 41% since January 2016, Axios' Kerry Flynn writes as part of an Axios Media Trends Executive briefing.
State of play: Fans are still showing up.
- Even while the average ticket price for Billboard's top 100 global tours rose to $127.17 last year — up from $84.15 in 2015 — attendance across those tours roughly doubled over the same period, according to entertainment research firm Luminate.
Zoom in: Look no further than Noah Kahan's sold-out concert at Target Field — where tickets were selling for hundreds of dollars on the secondary market in days before the show — for a local example of this trend.
- And it's not just new acts: A lawn seat at Dave Matthews Bands' Aug. 31 show at Mystic Lake Amphitheater will set you back $150+ with the current resale prices.
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