Schools have more unvaccinated kids than they realize
We’ve focused a lot this year on how many kids get out of vaccinations with exemptions, and how those pockets of unimmunized children propel ongoing measles outbreaks. We’ve focused less on a larger group of people: those without an exemption who still aren’t vaccinated.
We don’t keep great track of these folks, but 28 states maintain counts of how many kindergarteners enter school undervaccinated, and how many of those have exemptions their parents applied for based on religious or philosophical objections. Of those states, 26 have MMR vaccine coverage under the herd immunity threshold of 95 percent (meaning that not enough people are vaccinated to reliably keep measles from spreading). But if every kid without an exemption got vaccinated, the CDC estimates that 20 of those states could get over the threshold.
In 11 of those 28 states, there were fewer unvaccinated kindergarteners with exemptions than unvaccinated kindergartners without.
There are any number of reasons why these kids might be un- or undervaccinated. Their parents might not be against vaccines at all, but instead may not have the insurance to easily afford a shot for their kids, or perhaps have no time to bring their child to a pediatrician. That’s why schools have generally granted provisions—to give parents more time to get their kids to see a doctor.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/schools-have-more-unvaccinated-kids-than-they-realize/ar-AAC6iDk?li=BBnbfcL
