Exemptions for routine vaccines among kindergartners reach record highs: CDC
Last year, 3.3% of kindergartners were exempt from one or more vaccines.
Vaccination rates among U.S. kindergartners for the 2023-24 school year fell slightly from the previous year as exemptions reached record highs, according to new federal data published Wednesday.
The data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed how many children met school requirements for the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine; the diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccine; the poliovirus (polio) vaccine; and the varicella (chickenpox) vaccine.
Vaccination coverage among kindergartners in the U.S. decreased for all reported vaccines, the CDC found. For the MMR vaccine, coverage fell from 93.1% during the 2022-23 school year to 92.7% during the 2023-24 school year while DTaP vaccination coverage dropped from 92.7% to 92.3% over the same period.
Coverage for the polio vaccine fell from 93.1% to 92.6% and the percentage of children who received two doses of the chickenpox vaccine declined from 92.8% to 92.3%.
The data showed that coverage with the MMR, DTaP, polio and chickenpox vaccines decreased in more than 30 states compared to the prior year.
"Unfortunately, these [numbers] are very shocking and concerning, but unfortunately [also] not surprising given the climate of misinformation and vaccine hesitancy that we exist in," said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children's Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
Meanwhile, data showed the percentage of kindergartners exempt from one or more vaccines increased to 3.3% for the 2023-24 school year, which equates to about 127,000 children exempt from vaccines required for school. That is up from 3% the previous year and is the highest vaccination exemption rate ever reported in the U.S.
Exemptions increased in 40 states and Washington, D.C., with 14 states reporting exemptions exceeding 5%, according to the CDC.
While non-medical exemptions have remained relatively flat over the last decade, at around 0.2%, non-medical exemptions have steadily risen, increasing from 1.4% during the 2011-12 school year to 3.1% during the 2023-24 school year, CDC data shows.
Currently, 45 states allow for religious and/or personal exemptions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
"We're seeing these exemptions rise, not based on any medical validation, and that is especially concerning that we're allowing this to happen," Brownstein said. "In many ways, schools should be limiting the ability for people to make those kinds of claims because they're not based in science."
He said there are many reasons that vaccine coverage has fallen and exemptions have risen, including vaccine misinformation and vaccine hesitancy that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic.
To drive vaccine coverage rates up and exemption rates down, Brownstein said it's important to invest more in public health communications, make it more difficult to obtain non-medical exemptions and to continue building trust in vaccines in hesitant communities.
"These are highly effective vaccines, but they're only effective if vaccines translate to vaccinations, and, unfortunately, that translation is not happening at the same rate it was before," Brownstein said. "Under-vaccinated communities are the direct reason for the emergence of pathogens that we shouldn't have to deal with and our kids shouldn't have to experience in our lifetimes because the advances we've made in vaccine science."