Routine vaccination charges for kindergarten kids proceed to say no within the U.S., whereas exemptions from college vaccination necessities, significantly non-medical exemptions, have elevated. These tendencies started with the COVID-19 pandemic (Determine 1) and seem like associated to growing vaccine hesitancy, fueled partly by vaccine misinformation. Moreover, public opinion on vaccine necessities has turn out to be more and more partisan. This coverage watch gives an replace on the most recent tendencies in kids’s routine vaccination and exemption charges.
Whether or not and the way these tendencies are affected by the change in Presidential administration stays to be seen. Whereas states and native jurisdictions, not the federal authorities, set vaccine necessities for varsity kids, the federal authorities has a long-standing, evidence-based system for approving and recommending vaccines for the general public, together with the childhood vaccination schedule, which is utilized by states, pediatricians, and fogeys. President Trump has supported anti-vaccination attitudes and shared vaccine misinformation. On the marketing campaign path, he vowed to “cease all COVID mandates” and mentioned he would minimize federal funding to colleges with a “vaccine mandate or a masks mandate.” Trump additionally introduced he shall be nominating RFK Jr., the previous unbiased candidate for president who has a protracted report of opposing immunizations and spreading vaccine misinformation, to run the Division of Well being and Human Companies (HHS). If the Trump administration chooses to query or reject vaccine proof, seeks to vary the present system for recommending vaccines, or in any other case pressures states to make totally different choices, it might additional drive down vaccination charges amongst kids.
What are current tendencies in kindergarten kids’s routine vaccination charges?
The share of kindergarten kids updated on their vaccinations continues to say no. Information collected and aggregated yearly by the CDC from state and native immunization packages discovered that lower than 93% of kindergarteners had been vaccinated with all state required vaccines, together with MMR, DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis), polio, and varicella within the 2023-2024 college 12 months, down from 95% within the 2019-2020 (pre-pandemic) college 12 months, and beneath protection ranges of the previous decade. In all 4 college years because the pandemic started, the MMR vaccination charge has fallen beneath the Wholesome Folks 2030 “goal” charge of 95%, the extent wanted to forestall neighborhood transmission of measles, a extremely contagious and life-threatening virus. This implies roughly 280,000 college kids had been unvaccinated and unprotected in opposition to measles, and analysis exhibits the extra unvaccinated kids in a college, the bigger danger of an outbreak turns into. Whereas noting that widespread measles transmission danger stays low, the CDC reported as of November 7, 2024 that there have been 16 measles outbreaks in 2024 in contrast with 4 outbreaks in 2023.
Over three-quarters (39) of states had MMR vaccination charges beneath the “goal” charge of 95% for the 2023-2024 college 12 months, a rise from 28 states in the course of the 2019-2020 (pre-pandemic) college 12 months (Determine 2). Additional, 14 states reported charges beneath 90% for the 2023-2024 college 12 months, in comparison with solely three states within the 2019-2020 college 12 months. Within the final 12 months alone, over 30 states skilled declines in vaccination charges throughout all state required vaccines, together with MMR, DTaP, polio, and varicella. There may be additionally substantial variation in vaccination charges throughout states, with MMR protection charges amongst kindergarteners for the most recent college 12 months ranged from a low of 79.6% in Idaho to a excessive of 98.3% in West Virginia. There can be variation in vaccination protection inside states, and, when there are clusters of unvaccinated folks inside a selected neighborhood, the chance of an outbreak is greater.
What are current tendencies in kindergarten kids’s vaccine exemption charges?
On the identical time, the share of kindergarten kids with an exemption from a number of required vaccinations elevated. The share of kids claiming an exemption from a number of vaccinations rose from 2.5% within the 2019-2020 college 12 months to three.3% within the 2023-2024 college 12 months, the best nationwide exemption charge up to now. Will increase in non-medical exemptions accounted for almost all the current will increase. Non-medical exemptions elevated from 2.2% to three.1% whereas medical exemptions really declined barely from 0.3% to 0.2% from 2019-2020 to 2023-2024. Whereas a seemingly small enhance in non-medical exemptions, any will increase restrict the general share of kids capable of be vaccinated and make it harder to achieve vaccination charge objectives. Research have additionally proven that will increase in exemption charges are related to elevated danger for illness outbreaks.
Fourteen states within the 2023-2024 college 12 months had vaccine exemption charges over 5% in contrast with eight states in the course of the pre-pandemic college 12 months (Determine 3). These states couldn’t attain vaccination protection charges at or above 95% even when all non-exempt kids had been vaccinated (charges proven listed below are for exemptions to a number of vaccines, so doubtlessly achievable protection charges might range by vaccine kind). Within the final 12 months alone, over three quarters of states (41) have skilled a rise within the share of kindergarteners claiming an exemption for a number of vaccines. Greater exemption charges are related with decrease vaccination protection charges, and a few teams and state legislators have pushed to broaden vaccine exemptions or loosen up vaccine necessities for varsity kids in recent times.
