Congratulations to CTNewsJunkie Editor Christine Stuart. She was honored at the inaugural LION Publishers Awards in Nashville this weekend for her coverage leading to the release of surprising school-by-school immunization data earlier this year.
Christine and her colleagues won the award for Best Breaking News Coverage among medium-sized publications (150,000 to 500,000 pageviews per month), for her series of stories starting with As Measles Returns, Connecticut Offers Little Info About Immunization Rates, which coincided with the largest number of measles cases around the country in 25 years, including two in nearby New York state.
The reporting uncovered Public Health Department data identifying 109 schools across Connecticut where kindergarten and seventh-grade measles immunization rates fell below the “herd immunity” rate of 95% recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
