U.S. Kindergarten Vaccination Rate Drops Again, Data Show | lifestyle

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released Thursday found the rate dropped again to about 93% in the 2021-2022 school year.

The pandemic disrupted vaccinations and other routine health care for children, and also strained the ability of school principals and nurses to track which children were not up to date on their shots. CDC officials said another likely contributor is reduced confidence in vaccines.

“I think it’s a combination of all these things,” said Dr. Georgina Peacock, director of the CDC’s Division of Immunization.

Health professionals focus on kindergartens because they are where most children enter the school system. Public schools usually require vaccinations as a condition of attendance, although some exceptions are allowed.

Those exemptions increased slightly last school year, but the CDC’s Shannon Stokley said they weren’t the main driver of the decline. Rather, more schools have relaxed their policies to allow enrollment while giving families a grace period to get the shots, she said.

New figures suggest up to 275,000 kindergartens lack the full vaccine.

Falling vaccination rates are opening the door to outbreaks of diseases previously thought to be in the rearview mirror, experts say. They point to a case of paralytic polio reported last year in New York and recent increases in measles in Minnesota and Ohio.

These outbreaks coincide with anecdotal and survey information suggesting that more parents are questioning essential childhood vaccines that have long been hailed as public health successes.

A Kaiser Family Foundation survey last month found less parental support for school vaccination requirements compared to a 2019 survey.

“It’s crazy. There’s so much work ahead of us,” said Dr. Jason Newland, a pediatric infectious disease physician at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and vice president for community health at Washington University.

Other doctors told him that more and more parents are choosing which vaccines to give their children. CDC data reflected that: Vaccination rates for smallpox have fallen more sharply than vaccination rates for measles, mumps, and rubella.

This week, the CDC launched a campaign called “Let’s RISE” — short for Routine Immunizations on Schedule for Everyone. It includes new educational materials to help doctors talk to families about vaccinations, as well as information for families who have questions about vaccinations. .

Building trust in vaccination “is something that has to happen at the local and community level,” Peacock said.

Thursday’s CDC study was based on public school kindergarten vaccination reports from 49 states and private school reports from 48 states. Montana did not provide the data.

Prices vary across the country. CDC officials noted significant increases in several states, including Hawaii, Maine, Maryland and Wyoming. But most states saw declines, with the largest declines in Mississippi, Georgia and Wisconsin.

A second CDC report Thursday found that overall vaccination coverage among younger children remained high and stable, although there was a decline among children who were poor and lived in rural areas. The report was based on a 2021 nationwide telephone survey of parents of children around age 2.

Why the difference? CDC officials said doctors and parents appeared to ensure that younger and more vulnerable children received initial vaccine protection during the pandemic, but there may have been a decline in getting boosters and other shots as children got older.

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