Ohio kindergarten vaccinations trending downward

Vaccines enter the spotlight this month with COVID hospitalizations on the rise as students head back to school.

Driving the news: 3% of kindergartners across Ohio were granted exemptions for requisite vaccines as of the school year ending in 2022, compared with 1.5% in 2012.

• Though children are generally required to get multiple vaccinations before attending public school, exemptions can be given for both medical and non-medical reasons (such as religious or moral objections), depending on local rules.

Why it matters: Vaccinations reduce the spread of childhood illnesses — some potentially fatal — that once plagued the country, such as polio.

• Studies have found an increased risk of infection from vaccine-preventable diseases among exempt children.

The big picture: Though COVID-19 vaccination is not required for young children attending public school anywhere in the U.S., it appears that concerns over that shot may be fueling broader vaccine skepticism among a relatively small but growing number of parents — though that trend certainly existed before the pandemic.

• The nationwide median kindergarten vaccination exemption rate was rising even before the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing from 1.4% in 2012 to 2.6% in 2019.
• It has stayed at 2.5% or higher since 2020, coming in at 2.7% in 2022, the latest year for which data are available.

Between the lines: Even as the kindergarten vaccine exemption rate ticks up, Americans as a whole are overwhelmingly supportive of childhood vaccinations, per a recent Pew survey.

• When it comes to the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot, 88% of Americans said the benefits outweigh the risks, compared with 10% who feel the opposite.
• "The share expressing confidence in the value of MMR vaccines is identical to the share who said this in 2019, before the coronavirus outbreak," per Pew.

Yes, but: Just 70% of Americans now say healthy kids should be vaccinated as a requirement to attend public school, Pew found — down from 82% in the pre-pandemic era.

• There's a significant partisan split, with 85% of Democrats agreeing with such a requirement, compared with 57% of Republicans.
• Though Democratic support for vaccine requirements held steady at around 85% between pre- and post-pandemic years, Republican support took a remarkable nosedive, falling from 79% in 2019 to 57% in 2023.
• Put another way, the overall decline in support for vaccination requirements is being driven almost entirely by Republicans.

The bottom line: Skepticism around the COVID shots may be influencing childhood vaccination exemption rates.

• As Pew put it: "Those who are not vaccinated for COVID-19 are among those most likely to express concern about childhood vaccines generally."