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Childhood Vaccine Exemptions Reach Highest Level Ever — Upping Risk For Outbreaks Of Polio, Measles And More

Topline

More parents than ever have opted not to vaccinate their kids for tetanus, polio, measles and other diseases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday, increasing the risk of outbreaks of illnesses that were once considered almost eradicated in the United States.

A nurse administers a pediatric dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to a girl in Los Angeles.

AFP via Getty Images Key Facts

Forty states saw a rise in the number of vaccine exemptions granted to families with school aged children, and 3% of kids entering kindergarten had been given an exemption for the 2022-23 school year—the highest rate ever reported in the United States.

Nationally, 93.1% of kindergarteners in the 2022-23 school year had received both doses of the measles vaccine and the polio vaccine; the VAR vaccine, also known as chickenpox vaccine, had been administered to 92.9% of kids.

The state with the highest reported exemption rate was Idaho, where 12.1% of kindergarten students had been granted an exemption, followed by Oregon at 8.2%, Utah at 8.1%, Arizona at 7.4% and Wisconsin at 7.2%.

While the CDC did not provide data on the exact reasons for the exemptions, it did say more than 90% of all exemptions are for nonmedical reasons and that almost all of the new exemptions are nonmedical, including for religious and philosophical reasons.

Key Background

The nation had achieved near 95% vaccination coverage—the metric by which herd immunity is generally considered achieved, according to the World Health Organization— for the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, and rubella), DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis), polio and the varicella vaccine until the coronavirus pandemic began. The vaccination rate declined one percentage point during the 2020-21 school year, the CDC reports, and fell again during the 2020–21 and 2021–22 school years.

Big Number

10. More than 5% of kindergarteners have exemptions for at least one vaccine in 10 states—Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah and Wisconsin.

Tangent

Experts have warned that skepticism about the new Covid vaccines have fueled a wider spread in anti-vaccine sentiment worldwide. A 2022 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation said that 28% of people surveyed think parents should be able to decide whether or not to vaccinate their school-age children, up from 16% who shared that view in 2019. Amid a measles outbreak in Ohio last year, a member of KFF's Public Opinion and Survey Research team told NBC News that the debate over coronavirus vaccines could be blamed for the shift in attitude. A UNICEF report from April showed that the public perception of the importance of childhood vaccines declined in 52 out of 55 countries studied during the Covid pandemic. The report said there were 67 million children worldwide who missed out on at least one vaccination between 2019 and 2021, and that total vaccination rate decreased in 112 countries.

Crucial Quote

"It was the controversies and the climate of Covid vaccines and the vaccine mandates that had an impact," Lunna Lopes of the Kaiser Family Foundation told NBC last year.

Further Reading Centers for Disease Control and PreventionCoverage with Selected Vaccines and Exemption fromUnicefNew data indicates declining confidence in childhood vaccines of up to 44 percentage points in some countries during the COVID-19 pandemicMORE FROM FORBESVaccine Stocks-Including Pfizer, Moderna, BioNTech And Novavax-Slide Amid Plummeting DemandBy Robert HartMORE FROM FORBESVaccines Show Surprising Link To Reduced Risk Of Alzheimer'sBy Steven Salzberg

Young People In Sutherland Encouraged To Take Up Routine Vaccines Offer At School

Public Health Scotland is encouraging young people to take up the offer of routine vaccines at school as the latest statistics show a decline in vaccine uptake rates among this group.

In Scotland, a number of vaccines are offered to young people in secondary school to provide them with long-term protection against serious diseases. It's therefore important young people take up the offer of these vaccines that are routinely offered in school.

The DTP vaccine protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and polio and MenACWY protects against meningitis and septicaemia (blood poisoning). Both are offered to pupils in S3, at around 14 years of age, to complete the childhood vaccination course.

Public Health Scotland encourages young people to take up the offer of routine vaccines at school. Picture: AdobeStock

Our most recent data also shows that boys were less likely to receive the DTP and MenACWY vaccines than girls. This is also true for the school-based Human papillomavirus (HPV) immunisation programme, which helps to protect young people from HPV-related cancers later in life. This includes head, neck and anogenital cancers with the most common being cervical cancer.

HPV is a common virus which usually produces no symptoms and is usually spread through sexual contact. This means that people may not even know they're carrying the virus. All S1 pupils are eligible for the HPV vaccine in Scotland and getting the vaccine now protects against future risks.

The DTP, MenACWY and HPV vaccines are offered through vaccination clinics at school. Consent packs consisting of a letter, consent form(s) and leaflet are sent home with young people from school. Consent forms will start to be issued as early as the end of November by some Health Boards with vaccination taking place between January and March next year.

A national campaign, Chat. Sign. Protect., which is focused on encouraging young people to talk to their parents or carers about taking up the offer of these vaccines and signing and returning their forms to school has also been launched.

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