Vaccine hesitancy growing
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As kids are heading back to school, a growing number of Houston-area parents have been opting out of vaccines for religious or personal reasons.
Why it matters: Lingering vaccine hesitancy from the pandemic is evident in pediatricians' offices.
- While official data lags, public health experts tell Axios that anecdotal reports suggest vaccination rates continue to fall, leaving the population more vulnerable to outbreaks.
The big picture: U.S. parents still overwhelmingly support childhood vaccinations. But kindergarten exemptions rose to a median of 3.3% nationally during the 2022-2023 school year, up from 2.7% the year before.
By the numbers: About 3.5% of Texas kindergartners had vaccine exemptions in the 2022-23 school year, per the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- That's up from 2.9% statewide in the 2021-22 school year.
The ease of opting out of vaccinations varies by state and can have a direct impact on rates, Megan Ranney, dean of the Yale School of Public Health, told Axios.
- In Texas, officials grant exemptions if a health care provider determines a vaccine isn't safe for the student, the student is in the military or the student's religious or personal beliefs oppose immunization.
Zoom in: In the 2013-14 school year, 0.84% of Harris County kindergarteners were exempted from vaccines for religious or personal beliefs, per state health department data.
- That figure rose to 2.45% of Harris County kindergarteners in the 2022-23 school year, the most recent year with available data.
- Some surrounding counties saw even higher kindergartener exemption rates in the 2022-23 school year: 4.87% in Montgomery County, 4.7% in Austin County, 3.82% in Galveston County, 3.32% in Brazoria County, and 2.92% in Waller County.
Yes, but: It's not just hesitancy. It's "a perfect storm" of factors like physician shortages and pharmacy closures that are putting a drag on vaccination rates, FarmboxRx CEO Ashley Tyrner told Axios.
The bottom line: "You have to try," Ranney says. "Immunizations don't just happen."