Number of unvaccinated kindergartners rises in Florida, parental anxiety over vaccines
TAMPA, Fla. - The number of unvaccinated kindergartners in Florida is on the rise, as experts wonder if COVID-19 vaccine concerns have impacted parents' decisions regarding other vaccinations.
According to the most recent available data from the Florida Department of Health, nearly 4 percent of children entering kindergarten were granted vaccine exemptions during the 2021-22 school year. That's up from just 1.5 percent 10 years earlier.
"Parents are choosing for a variety of reasons, religious reasons, medical reasons, philosophical reasons, that they don't want their children vaccinated," said Dr. Jay Wolfson, an associate dean with USF Health's Morsani College of Medicine. "On the coattails of COVID there's a lot of parental anxiety about vaccines in general. I think people are distrusting of the government, they're distrusting of the pharmaceutical industries and this is a continuation of the trend we've seen over the last 3 to 5 years easily."
Experts say anxiety has impacted vaccines that were proven safe decades ago.
Wolfson believes that anxiety has impacted vaccines that were proven safe decades ago.
"Measles, mumps, rubella can be debilitating for children, as can polio. We don't want to go there again," Wolfson said, adding the importance of herd immunity can't be overstated for kids who are immuno-compromised and can't get vaccinated. "I think parents have to respect the communities in which they live, and the relative risks associated with other children and adults to whom their children might be exposed."
COVID-19 vaccine concerns have impacted how parents view vaccines, according to experts.
Some school districts in Tampa Bay are already reporting a rise in unvaccinated kindergartners this year. In Pinellas schools, for example, 440 students received exemptions last year. That number rose nearly 50-percent this year, up to 645.
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Hillsborough schools might be an outlier so far, with 452 students receiving a religious exemption, compared to 515 last year. A district spokesperson said that number could continue to rise as the year continues.
Vaccine exemptions in Florida, meanwhile, are outpacing the rest of the country, according to the CDC.
"At what point will the percentage of people not vaccinated as kindergartners result in disease, illness, hospitalization and death?" asked Wolfson.