Vaccination rates for kindergartners at 95 percent at Tiburon Peninsula schools

The rate of Reed Elementary School kindergartners who have received all of their required vaccinations is 95 percent this school year, above the minimum 92-94 percent range the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says is needed to achieve herd immunity but a slight dip from recent years.

This year’s figure dropped from the 97-percent rate reported for the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 school years in part because four students had permanent medical exemptions. Just one medical exemption was reported in 2017 and none were reported 2018. Under the concept of herd immunity, vaccinated members of a community are less likely to spread a disease to those who are most vulnerable, including children and the elderly with legitimate medical concerns that prevent them from being inoculated.

Despite the dip, this year’s rate is on par with the Marin’s averages at 93.4 percent, which officials say is the closest the county has ever come to the state average, which this year is 94.8 percent. Marin’s low was 77.9 percent in 2011-2012.

St. Hilary Catholic School in Tiburon reported a rate of greater than or equal to 95 percent this year, while Strawberry Point Elementary School reported a 94-percent vaccination rate, with two medical exemptions.

“We are thrilled that Marin County’s schools have a critical mass of vaccinated kids to protect from measles and other childhood diseases,” Marin County Superintendent of Schools Mary Jane Burke said. “We will continue to educate parents and help enforce California’s immunization policy so our students will have all the vaccines they need to protect themselves and the whole community.”

The results, posted by the California Department of Public Health as part of its annual immunization assessment, reflect tougher rules under 2015’s state Senate Bill 277, which went into effect ahead of the 2016-2017 school year. The bill abolished the personal-belief exemption and legally requires students be vaccinated for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis; polio; measles, mumps and rubella; hepatitis B; and chickenpox to attend child care or to enroll in a public school for the first time, as well as to enter kindergarten or seventh grade, the two checkpoint grades for vaccination requirements.

Seventh-grade vaccination rates are not yet available.

In the three years prior to the bill, Reed Elementary had vaccination rates of 85 percent in 2013-2014, 81 percent in 2014-2015 and 93 percent in 2015-2016. Rates were as low as 77 percent in 2010-2011.

“We’re much better off than we were a few years ago,” said Dr. Matt Willis, Marin’s public health officer. “More people are understanding that the threat of communicable disease is real and that vaccinations protect our whole community, not just one child. But it’s not just about laws or vaccines, it’s about partnership. Schools, parents, legislators and medical providers all play a role in promoting health in our community.”

Personal-belief exemptions began to increase dramatically after a 1998 report in The Lancet medical journal suggested a link between vaccines and autism. The report was widely criticized within the scientific community, was later found to be fraudulent and was retracted by The Lancet in 2010, while the doctor behind the study was barred from practicing medicine for life for breaching “fundamental principles of research medicine.”

Belief in the connection persists, however, and with California’s elimination of the personal-belief exemption, some parents are obtaining fraudulent medical exemptions.

The author of SB 277, physician and state Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, has written new legislation, SB 276, that would crack down on such fake exemptions. According to Pan, medical exemptions have tripled since the first bill was signed, for “questionable reasons” including asthma and diabetes. Under the new bill, which has been approved in the state Senate and will be considered by the Assembly this summer, the state’s Department of Public Health would standardize forms and review exemptions to determine whether they meet guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control. The state agency estimates up to 40 percent of current medical exemptions would be denied.

As in 2015, when 147 reported cases of measles in the U.S. were linked to exposure at Disneyland, Pan’s newest legislation also comes on the heels of a multistate measles outbreak, with 981 cases reported across the country so far in 2019, the highest figure since measles was declared eradicated in the U.S. in 2000. It is spread mostly in communities with pockets of unvaccinated people.

In addition to the required inoculations for schoolchildren, public-health officials recommend an annual flu vaccination for everyone 6 months of age or older, typically in late October or early November. Many children and adults are eligible for free shots or the nasal spray with or without insurance.

To view an interactive map of required school and child-care immunization levels in Marin and throughout California, or for information on immunization law and requirements, visit shotsforschool.org.

Kevin Hessel is The Ark’s executive editor. Reach him at 415-435-2652, on Twitter at @thearknewspaper and on Facebook at fb.me/thearknewspaper.