Required vaccine coverage among US kindergartners dips again, new CDC data shows
CNN
A record share of US kindergartners had an exemption for required vaccinations last school year, leaving more than 125,000 new schoolchildren without coverage for at least one state-mandated vaccine, according to new data published Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And another dip in measles vaccination rates among kindergartners means coverage has now been well below the federal target for four years in a row.
A record share of US kindergartners had an exemption for required vaccinations last school year, leaving more than 125,000 new schoolchildren without coverage for at least one state-mandated vaccine, according to new data published Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And another dip in measles vaccination rates among kindergartners means coverage has now been well below the federal target for four years in a row. The US Department of Health and Human Services has set a goal that at least 95% of children in kindergarten will have gotten two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, a threshold necessary to help prevent outbreaks of the highly contagious disease. After this rate was maintained for a decade, though, coverage dipped during the Covid-19 pandemic and has yet to recover. The measles vaccination rate fell again last year, to 92.7% coverage for kindergartners in the 2023-24 school year, according to the CDC data. Rates for other state-mandated vaccinations – including diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis, known as DTaP, and polio – also declined. “Public health officials are concerned about decreased vaccination rates in Kindergarteners. Childhood vaccines are safe and effective and have made a profound difference in reducing suffering and death from what were once dreaded infectious diseases,” Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, said in a statement. The rate of vaccine exemptions for children has risen as coverage rates have declined in recent years; last school year, vaccine exemptions reached the highest level ever reported in the US. About 3.3% of kindergartners had an exemption for one or more required vaccines, CDC data shows, and the vast majority were nonmedical exemptions.
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