The number of kids whose parents opted them out of state-required childhood vaccinations has reached an all-time high, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For the more than 3.8 million children entering kindergarten, the vaccine exemption rate increased overall to 3% for the 2022-23 school year, according to a CDC report released Friday.
The percentage marks a continued drop in routine immunizations that increases the risk for preventable and highly contagious diseases such as measles and whooping cough.
The highest exemption rates were in Western states, including Utah and Idaho.
Forty-nine states and Washington, D.C., released exemption data for mandatory vaccines among public school kindergarteners during the 2022-2023 school year, and 48 states and D.C. released data with all state-required vaccines and exemption data for private school kindergartners. Montana did not provide its data.
The report did not explore the reasons for the increase in vaccine exemptions, but experts say the findings reflect Americans’ growing unease about medicine in general, per NBC News.
“There is a rising distrust in the health care system,” said Dr. Amna Husain, a pediatrician in private practice in North Carolina, as well as a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. Vaccine exemptions “have unfortunately trended upward with it.”
During the 2022–23 school year, coverage remained near 93% for all reported vaccines, ranging from 92.7% for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTaP) to 93.1% for measles, mumps, and rubella and polio, according to the CDC. The exemption rate increased 0.4 percentage points over the previous school year to 3%.
Exemptions increased in 41 states, exceeding 5% in 10 states: Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah and Wisconsin.
“This is quite a jump,” Ranee Seither, a CDC epidemiologist and author of the new report, told NBC. Just three years ago, Seither said, only two states had an exemption rate of more than 5%.
At 12.1%, Idaho had the highest percentage of children entering kindergarten with a vaccine exemption in 2022. Oregon was next at 8.2%, followed by Utah at 8.1%.
The trend also could coincide with reservations about the COVID-19 vaccine.
“So many people were reluctant to get that new vaccine,” Dr. Mysheika Roberts, health commissioner for Columbus Public Health, told NBC. She feared that it would “have a trickle-down effect and impact vaccination coverage for our children.”
While the vaccination rate among kindergartners in the 2022-23 school year was 93%, it consistently hovered around 95% before the pandemic. Generally, populations need 95% immunity to protect against viral outbreaks.