Childhood Vaccine Coverage Increases in Connecticut Despite National Decline

By Hugh McQuaid

October 14 @ 5:00 am

Connecticut stood out as an exception in new statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, which found vaccination rates declining around the country as an increasing number of parents decline to inoculate their children against preventable illnesses.

The CDC numbers, released last week, found that vaccination coverage among American kindergartners had declined for all reported vaccines during the 2023-2024 school year when compared to the 2022-2023 school year.

For instance, MMR coverage among kindergarteners dropped from 93.1% in 22-23 to 92.7% in 23-24. Both numbers are well below the 95% coverage threshold, which makes outbreaks of disease unlikely.

In a statement to USA Today, Dr. Georgina Peacock, director of the CDC’s Immunization Services Division, said the declining vaccination rates posed serious and potentially fatal risks to children and those around them.

“As we are noting these declines in childhood vaccination, we are also seeing more communities experience outbreaks of measles and whooping cough across the U.S.,” she said. “Vaccination is the best way to prevent these outbreaks and their devastating impact on children.”

The decline represents a continuation of a trend that has seen vaccination coverage rates sliding in the years since the pandemic. National MMR coverage sat at 95.2% during the 2019-202 academic year.

The decrease is largely driven by an ongoing spike in the number of parents claiming non-medical exemptions to laws requiring school children to be inoculated against several preventable illnesses before attending kindergarten.

Roughly 1.9% of kindergarteners received non-medical exemptions during the 2020-2021 school year and that number has risen each subsequent year, according to the CDC. The most recent statistics found that around 3.1% of students received a non-medical exemption, nationwide.

Connecticut’s statistics paint a different story. The state’s MMR vaccination coverage increased 97.3% to 97.7% from 2022-23 to 2023-24, according to the CDC. Meanwhile, non-medical exemptions dropped from 0.5% in 2022-23 to 0.1% in 2023-24.

This rise in protection for school children coincides with the implementation of a policy decision made in 2021, when the legislature voted to phase out the use of non-medical exemptions to school vaccine requirements in an effort to preserve immunity coverage.

Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, said the CDC statistics demonstrated the efficacy of responsible public health policies.

“While it’s disappointing to see non-medical exemptions continue to diminish childhood immunity around the country, I’m heartened to see Connecticut children benefiting from the protection that vaccine coverage provides,” said Anwar, a physician who co-chairs the legislature’s Public Health Committee. “Students across the state are now less likely to suffer from preventable and unnecessary illnesses thanks to this common-sense policy.”