California kindergarten vaccination rate drops below 95% as affluent parents get medical exemptions

[Demovictory9]

https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-vaccination-rates-drop-20190701-story.html

California vaccination rate drops as doctors grant more exemptions. Is there a link?
By SOUMYA KARLAMANGLA a

California’s kindergarten vaccination rate dropped again in the most recent school year as more parents sought permission from doctors to not immunize their children, according to new state data.

The troubling trend comes amid a national measles outbreak as well as intense debate over whether California should strengthen its school immunization laws.


California already has one of the strictest vaccination laws in the country, preventing children from skipping their shots unless a doctor says they have a medical reason to be exempt. Some health advocates fear that parents are obtaining exemptions for their children without valid medical reasons. Those advocates are now pushing lawmakers to clamp down on fraudulent exemptions.

In the school year that ended last month, 4,812 kindergartners had obtained medical exemptions from vaccines, a 70% increase from two years ago, when the vaccination law first took effect, according to data from the California Department of Public Health. The data suggest that large concentrations of medical exemptions are being granted to school children in relatively affluent parts of the state, such as Santa Cruz and Sonoma counties.

The kindergarten vaccination rate in California dropped to 94.8% in 2018-19 from 95.1% in 2017-18 and 95.6% the previous year.

The school districts with the most medical exemptions were L.A. Unified, Capistrano Unified and San Diego Unified. The rate of medical exemptions in Capistrano Unified — a smaller district in Orange County — was 10 times higher than that of L.A. Unified’s.

[Generic Other]

1. Segregate the unvaccinated

Keep them away from the rest of us.

On edit: I mean the refuseniks not the ones who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.

[Wounded Bear]

2. Doctors who sell fake immunization slips should be punished...

[Igel]

4. I think doctors who produce diagnoses

to get kids into Special Ed or 504 programs should be punished first.

Of course, there's the other problem. "Affluent", "California" and "religious conservative" don't fit well together. This thread won't do well because it can't lead to a rant against the usual foes.

At the same time, I still have problems with the law: It makes some government agency sitting in judgment concerning decisions made by doctors, patients, and their guardians. How'd that play out for any number of other diagnoses?

It's bad enough with some of the opioid review boards, set up out of terror at FDA non-binding "guidance".

Yeah, it's a problem, though. When do my rights entail invading your body?

[pnwmom]

3. Less than 1% (0.9%) got medical exemptions. They should be doing something about the

many more exemptions for "philosophical" reasons.

[jpak]

5. Didn't CA pass a law to investigate doctors that gave excessive exemptions?

[Blue_true]

6. I bet if you study the parents, all or most are on some type of restricted diet

regimen.