Vaccination Coverage Down Among Kindergarteners

For children in kindergarten, vaccination coverage was lower for all vaccines in the 2021-2022 school year compared with the 2020-2021 school year, according to research published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Oyindamola Yusuf, PhD, and colleagues examined vaccination coverage and exemptions to
vaccination among children in kindergarten for the 2021-2022 school year. Coverage rates with two doses of the MMR vaccine, the state-required number of DTaP vaccine doses, the poliovirus vaccine, and the state-required number of varicella vaccine doses were 93.5%, 93.1%, 93.5%, and 92.8%, respectively, nationwide. Vaccination coverage decreased 0.4 to 0.9 percentage points for all vaccines compared with the 2020-2021 school year. Overall, 2.6% of kindergarteners had an exemption for one or more vaccines, and an additional 3.9% were not up to date with MMR despite not having an exemption. “Rigorously enforced school vaccination requirements, school-based vaccination clinics, reminder and recall systems, and follow-up with under vaccinated students by school nurses are effective strategies to improve vaccination coverage,” Dr. Yusuf and colleagues wrote.