Data: CDC; Note: Data for Montana unavailable in 2024; Chart: Sara Wise/Axios
The number of kindergarten students with vaccine exemptions in D.C., Maryland and Virginia increased during the 2023-24 school year compared with the previous one, per the latest CDC data.
Why it matters: The trend is a reflection of increased vaccine skepticism, which has lingered in some parenting corners for years but gained considerable steam during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Driving the news: It's also happening as public health experts fear that President-elect Trump's choice of vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the nation's health agencies will further sow public distrust in school vaccination requirements.
The big picture: This isn't just a local thing — the national share of kindergartners with exemptions for one or more vaccines increased to 3.3% in 2023-24, up from 3% the prior year.
Compare that with 2013-14, when just 2.1% of U.S. kindergartners had vaccine exemptions.
State of play: 2.3% of D.C. kindergartners had medical or non-medical vaccine exemptions during the 2023-24 school year, per the CDC.
That's up from 1.3% during the 2022-23 school year.
Meanwhile, 2.2% of Maryland kindergartners had vaccine exemptions, up from 1.9%.
Virginia was at 2.4%, up from 2.2%.
The intrigue: Virginia's rate of vaccine exemptions for kindergartners has quadrupled over the last decade: It was only at 0.6% in the 2013-14 school year, per the CDC.
And Maryland's has more than doubled from 1% in 2013-14, while theD.C. rate is up from 1.5% in that period.