States should make it harder to get excused from having your kid vaccinated, a top federal health official said Monday.
“We think it should be easier to get a vaccine than an exemption from vaccines,” said Anne Schuchat, director of Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
All states require children to get certain vaccines before entering public school, but there’s wide leniency for parents who object. Every state but two allows parents to claim religious or personal belief exemptions.
Schuchat didn’t call for a federal vaccine mandate. But she did say the state-provided exemptions are very “loose” and are causing concern to health officials as the measles keeps spreading. As of Friday there were 154 confirmed measles cases in 17 states, she said. That makes 13 new cases over the past week.
“We think tightening up the exemption requirements is important to protect children in our communities,” Schuchat said. “We would like to see stronger rules around exemptions.”
The number of measles cases are on track to spike again this year, after a record year in 2014 when more than 600 cases were recorded. About three in four cases this year are linked to an initial outbreak in Disneyland. Officials say cases are spreading faster because of high exemption rates in certain communities around the country.
“It’s spreading because it’s finding many communities or micro communities where the virus spreads,” said Schuchat, speaking at a webinar hosted by the National Press Foundation.
