Vaccine rates fall among kindergarteners

Vaccination rates plunge, opening up pockets for deadly diseases to spread

What you probably already know: Vaccination rates for common childhood diseases among kindergarteners have fallen off in recent years, and fell significantly last year — down to 93% from 95% the previous year — according to the Centers for Disease Control. In some more conservative areas of the country, the rates are dropping faster. In Idaho, for example, vaccination rates are now below 80% and Alaska is quickly headed in the same direction. This has many public health experts concerned that the anti-vaccine stance of the incoming Trump Administration could exacerbate what is already a problem.

Why? Celebrities and social media have spread misinformation about vaccines for years, tying them to autism, a connection that been proven again and again to be false. Anti-vaccine sentiment during the pandemic worsened the issue. Now, though, more than 280,000 kindergarteners haven’t received the measles vaccine, compared to 100,000 before the pandemic. Doctors have said that there are pockets of the country that are ripe for a resurgence of measles. The disease causes pneumonia, swelling of the brain, severe diarrhea and death, particularly in children under 5. About 500 people died every year of measles before the vaccine, and 48,000 were hospitalized.

What it means: The division over vaccines falls strongly along political lines. Drop offs in vaccination rates are higher in states that went to Trump in the last election, and the percentage of people who say childhood vaccines are important fell from 67% among Democrats in 2019 to 63% last year, compared with 52% of Republicans in 2019, a rate that plunged to 26% last year.

What happens now? Epidemiologists now say that a resurgence in measles is pretty much inevitable because it will be able to thrive and spread in the pockets where vaccination rates dip below 90%. After that, the herd immunity is gone. Polio is also starting to make a resurgence, along with whooping cough. A young unvaccinated man in New York was partially paralyzed by polio two years ago, and the disease has spread quickly through the Amish populations in the southern area of New York State, where only 9% of children get vaccinated.