The proportion of U.S. kindergartners exempted from school vaccination requirements has hit its highest level ever, 3%, U.S. health officials said Thursday.
More parents are questioning routine childhood vaccinations that they used to automatically accept, an effect of the political schism that emerged during the pandemic around COVID-19 vaccines, experts say.
Even though more kids were given exemptions, the national vaccination rate held steady: 93% of kindergarteners got their required shots for the 2022-2023 school year, the same as the year before, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report Thursday. The rate was 95% in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The bad news is that it’s gone down since the pandemic and still hasn’t rebounded,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary, a University of Colorado pediatric infectious diseases specialist. “The good news is that the vast majority of parents are still vaccinating their kids according to the recommended schedule.”
Aren’t they whom the exemptions are for?
Should be, but hey, your fe-fe’s, or belief in a spirit animal are just as likely to score one these days.
Nope. Religious nut jobs and hippy moms who use oil and candles to treat diseases.