The anti-vaccination movement has been getting lots of attention — especially amid measles outbreaks like the recent rash of cases in California — but one thing’s still true: the vast majority of parents continue to get their kids vaccinated.
The percentage of children who received no vaccinations did not change from 2012 to 2013 (the most recent year for which numbers are available), the Centers for Disease Control reported last August.
And the number of children who did get vaccinations remained high — well within the 90-to-95-percent range medical experts say is necessary to ensure infectious diseases don’t spread. Nearly 92 percent of kids in the U.S. got their measles, mumps and rubella vaccines in 2013.
So why the recent outcropping of measles, mumps and whooping cough? In the most recent outbreak in California, state health officials have confirmed 78 cases, 48 of which are directly linked to Disneyland or someone who went there.
Because of how infectious diseases spread, overall statistics don’t tell the whole story, say medical experts, who nearly all agree that the outbreaks are linked to people who don’t get immunizations. All it takes is for the immunization rate to dip in a community, and cases can spread quickly.
“There are a few pockets and they’re scattered around the country,” said Wanda Filer, president-elect of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
That information is collected by local health departments. But when diseases like measles spreads, it goes national fast. Last year, the disease showed up in 27 states and infected 644 people — more cases in one year than in the past dozen.
The CDC warned in its report last year that looking just at nationwide vaccination rates, and not local rates, could be misleading.
“High vaccination coverage levels at the national and state levels might mask clustering of unvaccinated children at local levels where vaccine-preventable diseases might be transmitted,” CDC researchers wrote.
The outbreaks raise questions about the influence of the anti-vaccination movement, which has received high-profile endorsements from celebrities, namely former model and television host Jenny McCarthy.
There have always been groups of people opposed to getting their children vaccinated, medical experts say. But some say they’ve noticed in recent years that even if they’re not opposed to vaccines overall, more parents resist having their child vaccine according to their doctor’s recommended schedule.
“I think it’s pretty clear there’s more vaccine hesitancy,” said Kathryn Edwards, a professor of pediatrics at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
“There is maybe just a broader awareness that these questions are out there,” said Filer said. “[Some parents] want to do the Chinese menu if you will, the a la carte version.”
