Childhood vaccination rates for the 2024-25 school year fell for the fifth year in a row, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published Thursday.
Vaccine coverage for shots that protect against measles, polio, chickenpox, whooping cough and hepatitis B have now been under 95% -- a threshold many experts consider herd immunity -- since at least the 2020-2021 school year.
Exemptions for vaccines also hit a record high, increasing to 3.6% for the 2024-25 school year compared to 3.3% during the previous school year. The number of kindergarteners exempt from one or more vaccines was about 138,000.
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"That gap, combined with concentrated pockets of exemptions, is exactly how sustained outbreaks gain a foothold," said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and ABC News medical contributor. "Kindergarten vaccination rates are an early warning indicator. Persistent declines predict conditions for more frequent and larger outbreaks are already in place."
Exemptions increased in 36 states, with 17 states reporting exemption rates exceeding 5%, according to the CDC data. Nearly all the exemptions were listed as non-medical, typically related to religious or personal reasons.
"The surge in non-medical exemptions reflects a growing influence of misinformation and shifting policy. When these beliefs concentrate geographically, they erode the very network of immunity that protects all children," Brownstein said.
An estimated 92.5% of kindergarteners were vaccinated with the polio vaccine as well as the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, leaving an estimated 286,000 vulnerable to the diseases.
It comes as the U.S. is seeing the highest number of measles cases since 1992, with dozens of outbreaks reported across the country, CDC data shows.
About 94% of kindergartners were vaccinated against hepatitis B. Even fewer children were vaccinated against chickenpox and whooping cough with rates at 92.1%, according to the data.
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Last year saw a record level of whooping cough cases, with more than 35,000 cases reported -- roughly six times as many cases compared to 2023.
Federal health officials in the Trump administration have also recently shifted messaging around vaccination, now pushing for personal choice -- advocating that parents should decide whether or not to immunize their kids.
"Public health messaging has shifted in ways that place personal choice ahead of community protection. When federal leadership softens its stance on vaccination, it can accelerate hesitancy and legitimize non medical exemptions, further weakening population level immunity," Brownstein said.
"As pediatricians, we know that immunizing children helps them stay healthy, and when everyone can be immunized, it's harder for diseases to spread in our communities," Dr. Susan Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics said in a statement. "By making sure all children can access immunizations before entering school with their classmates, children are best able to stay healthy to play, learn, and grow."
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