Going Back to School Shouldn’t Increase Susceptibility to Serious Illness

By Penn Quarter Partners

Back-to-school days shouldn’t involve any matters more stressful than being ready to meet the school bus on time and making sure the price tag is peeled off the new water bottle.

In these times, though, at least in some parts of the country, there are increasing concerns about our children’s health.

The New York Times reported recently that more families in the United States are seeking and receiving exemptions allowing their children to attend school even if they have not received routine vaccinations that protect against illnesses. In the previous school year, those exemptions increased by 18 percent, the largest jump in over a decade.

And there are fears that those numbers will continue to go up with continued controversy and confusion over the safety and efficacy of vaccines and the efforts by some states — most recently, Florida — to eliminate all vaccine mandates.

This rise in vaccine exemptions isn’t uniform in a country in which 92 percent of kindergartners are still receiving their scheduled vaccinations for diseases like measles and polio. The variation in numbers is considerable from state to state, but in those areas where there have been a disproportionate number of vaccine exemptions, there is a correlation with a greater prevalence of illness.

In Utah, for example, which has relaxed vaccine requirements and has a relatively high number of granted exemptions, the state has been struggling with a measles outbreak affecting hundreds of people. In other areas, such as localities in Pennsylvania and South Carolina, where vaccination adherence is below the national average, there similarly have been higher measles incidence rates. And 2024 saw the highest number of pertussis (aka whooping cough) cases in the U.S. since 2012.

As was emphasized in a previous Insights post, this is a time for voices to be heard on the importance of vaccinations as an irreplaceable tool to prevent sickness. To HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s credit, he said in a CNN interview last month that parents should get their children the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. This viewpoint can’t be shared loudly or frequently enough.

Physicians have always been viewed as some of the most trusted sources of information in this country and that should certainly be the case now. Organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians have been consistent for years on their vaccine recommendations.

And most health insurance plans in the U.S. are currently covering recommended vaccinations with no patient cost sharing.

Again, this is a problem that falls short of a full-blown public health crisis because more than nine of 10 American households are following the vaccinations schedules supported by the medical community. But at a time in which measles cases are reaching their highest levels in decades in certain areas of the country, this is a matter that must be taken seriously.

Penn Quarter Partners will continue to work with federal and state policymakers and a wide array of stakeholders to not only ensure access to essential vaccines but also to promote the policies necessary to encourage the continued development of biopharmaceutical innovations that will prevent diseases today and in the future.