SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — New CDC data said Spokane County saw an increase in unvaccinated kindergarteners that surpassed the national increase this year.
The CDC released the vaccination numbers for the 2023-24 school year Tuesday.
Nationally, the vaccine exemption rate went from 3% to 3.3%. In Washington, it went up from 4% to 4.8%.
In Spokane County specifically, the number rose dramatically from 4.5% to 7.8%, meaning kindergarteners across the county are going to school unvaccinated at a much higher rate than the rest of the country.
Within those kindergartener exemptions in Spokane County, the biggest rise is seen in exemptions for religious reasons.
In the 2023-24 school year, almost 200 students – or 3.3% of Spokane County kindergarteners – were unvaccinated for religious reasons.
That number rose to just over 350 students – or 6.3% – this school year, nearly doubling from the previous year.
In total, Spokane County kindergarteners have nearly 1% fewer vaccinated students than the previous year, which concerns health officials.
“Having as many students vaccinated as possible, it’s going to create that herd immunity. It’s going to reduce the risk of having kids potentially be excluded from school,” said Spokane Regional Health District immunization community network specialist Kari Lidbeck.
Although a 1% decrease in vaccinations may seem small, it’s a negative trend. It’s the opposite way that health officials want to see our vaccination rates go.
“When there’s low vaccination rates in schools, there’s obviously a higher chance for a vaccine preventable disease to become an outbreak,” Lidbeck said.
In recent weeks, the Inland Northwest has seen an outbreak of whooping cough. In September alone, the Spokane Regional Health District recorded 18 cases in the county.
“it’s just a good reminder that if it’s a child younger than seven, they need to be up to date on their DTaP,” Lidbeck said. “If it’s seven and older, then we need to make sure we’re up to date on our Tdap vaccines because both of those protects against pertussis.”
Sometimes when there’s outbreaks of infectious disease, your child could be barred from going to school if they aren’t vaccinated.
“If a child isn’t vaccinated for the particular disease that is in an outbreak status, technically, legally, our health local health officer could require that children be excluded from school,” Lidbeck said.
Despite the whooping cough cases, the Spokane Regional Health District said it wouldn’t typically warrant preventing unvaccinated children from attending school.
COPYRIGHT 2024 BY KXLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
