Us School-entry Vaccination Rates Fall As Exemptions Keep Rising

U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates dipped last year and the proportion of children with exemptions rose to an all-time high, according to federal data posted Wednesday.

The share of kids exempted from vaccine requirements rose to 3.3, up from 3 the year before. Meanwhile, 92.7 of kindergartners got their required shots, which is a little lower than the previous two years . Before the COVID-19 pandemic the vaccination rate was 95, the coverage level that makes it unlikely that a single infection will spark a disease cluster or outbreak.

The changes may seem slight but are significant, translating to about 80,000 kids not getting vaccinated, health officials say.

The rates help explain a worrisome creep in cases of whooping cough, measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases, said Dr. Raynard Washington, chair of the Big Cities Health Coalition, which represents 35 large metropolitan public health departments.

"We all have been challenged with emerging outbreaks ... across the country," said Washington, the director of the health department serving Charlotte, North Carolina.