JUDY WOODRUFF: For some parents in the U.S.,
it's a question in the fall: Should they vaccinate
their children to send them to school?
The American Academy of Pediatrics believes
so and says that a measles outbreak that started
at Disneyland a few years ago shows how fast
childhood diseases can resurface if not enough
children are protected.
California and several states have since tightened
their immunization requirements.
But some parents are still pushing back.
PBS special correspondent Lisa Stark of our
partner Education Week reports from Vermont
about the vaccine fight there.
It's part of our weekly series Making the
Grade.
LISA STARK: Seven-year-old Merin Blake is
a second grader at Champlain Elementary in
Burlington, Vermont, a school her parents
picked for her back in kindergarten, not because
of class size or test scores, but based on
how many students had all their vaccines.
MIA HOCKETT, Mother: When I took a look at
the immunization rates for schools in Burlington,
and also, though, at the kind of private schools
in the area, I was really aghast about how
low they were.
And that made me really, really anxious.
LISA STARK: Mom Mia Hockett was anxious because
Merin was in the midst of treatment for childhood
leukemia, diagnosed just before her 4th birthday.
The intensive chemotherapy compromised her
immune system, making her vulnerable to diseases.
School nurse Nancy Pruitt worked to keep Merin
safe.
NANCY PRUITT, School Nurse: In her classroom,
we made sure that the kids were vaccinated.
We don't have the -- we can't always do that,
but we made sure that she had a classroom
with kids that had been vaccinated.
LISA STARK: Vaccinated against preventable
illnesses, such as mumps, measles, whooping
cough, chicken pox, and polio, which would
have been especially dangerous for Merin.
MIA HOCKETT: I know that kind of a lot of
people think that we don't really have these
diseases, so we don't need to be afraid of
them.
But in that situation, when we're kind of
thinking about, you know, our child...
LISA STARK: Hockett isn't just a mom.
She's also a doctor.
And she wanted a school with vaccination rates
of at least 90 to 95 percent, which public
health officials say is required to protect
those who are vulnerable or can't be vaccinated.
Christine Finley runs the immunization program
for the state of Vermont.
�MD-BO�CHRISTINE FINLEY, Vermont Department
of Health: When children are in school, they're
in a setting where they are interacting broadly
with one another.
If you don't have a large percentage of the
children vaccinated, then, basically, your
shield isn't going to work, because you have
got places where a disease can begin to spread
within a school.
LISA STARK: Finley says, by 2014, vaccine
rates had dropped to alarming levels, at some
public schools, as many as 20 percent of students
without all the required shots, and at a dozen
private school, 50 percent not fully vaccinated.
Vermont, like every state, requires vaccines
to attend school, but, like all states, allows
exemptions.
In every state, children can get waivers for
medical reasons.
Forty-seven states permit families to skip
vaccines for religious beliefs; 18 also allow
for personal or philosophical exemptions.
Some states are moving to tighten their laws,
chief among them California, which, in 2015,
did away with all waivers, except for medical
exemptions.
Kindergarten vaccination rates have jumped
to the highest levels in more than 15 years,
nearly 96 percent.
DANIEL SALMON, Johns Hopkins University: The
problem is, in many states, it's easier to
get an exemption than it is to vaccinate your
child.
LISA STARK: Easier, says Daniel Salmon with
the Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns
Hopkins University, because parents simply
sign a waiver request, much less effort than
getting children vaccinated.
WOMAN: So, this one is for you, and this one
is for the school.
DANIEL SALMON: While, nationally, most people
vaccinate their children, and that's clearly
the norm, we're starting to see communities
where more and more parents are refusing vaccines.
LISA STARK: Low vaccine rates in some communities
are blamed for three large measles outbreaks
in the past four years, one in Ohio, one that
began in Disneyland and spread to seven states,
and another this year in Minnesota.
Are your children vaccinated?
ARIEL BREWER LOUIS, Mother: No, they are not.
LISA STARK: Ariel Brewer Louis is a Vermont
mom of three.
We caught up with her during an event for
those who question the safety and efficacy
of vaccines.
She told her story on board a bus that's traveling
the nation to promote an anti-vaccine documentary
and record vaccine testimonials.
ARIEL BREWER LOUIS: I have three girls.
LISA STARK: Brewer Louis recalled that decades
ago her brother may have had a serious reaction
to a vaccine, according to their mother.
ARIEL BREWER LOUIS: It must have planted a
seed, because when my first was born, I just
said no.
I just opted out.
LISA STARK: Parents say they forgo some or
all vaccines for their children for a variety
of reasons.
They're worried about the number of doses,
the crowded vaccine schedule, and past claims
of a link to autism, which have been discredited.
Jennifer Stella runs the Vermont Coalition
for Vaccine Choice.
Are you anti-vaccine?
JENNIFER STELLA, Vermont Coalition for Vaccine
Choice: I think I have been called anti-vaccine
a lot, haven't I?
You know, I'm pro-choice.
I think that everybody should have a choice.
LISA STARK: Stella says her two children reacted
badly after receiving several immunizations.
Her son cried incessantly, stopped nursing
and seized in her arms, and her daughter had
head-to-toe rashes.
JENNIFER STELLA: I don't think that vaccines
are safe enough for my children.
LISA STARK: Pediatrician Jill Rinehart says
vaccines are extremely safe and effective.
DR.
JILL RINEHART, Pediatrician: I mean, there's
not much that I do every day for children
that saves lives.
Immunizations are something that I do every
day that I know makes a huge difference.
LISA STARK: Rinehart and other doctors helped
push the state to tighten Vermont's vaccine
laws.
So did Hockett, with Mia in tow.
In 2015, lawmakers eliminated the state's
philosophical exemption.
Parents can still opt out for religious or
medical reasons.
Partly because of the change in law, Brewer
Louis is homeschooling her 8-year-old.
But she is relying on the religious exemption
to send another daughter to preschool.
What is your religious objections to vaccines?
ARIEL BREWER LOUIS: I don't have a religious
objection to vaccines, but that's my only
option.
And the way I see it, I have done my research,
and there's no way I am going to vaccinate
my children to send them to school.
LISA STARK: What do you say to people who
say to you, I should have the right not to
vaccinate my child?
MIA HOCKETT: I absolutely agree with that,
but none of this legislation actually forces
someone to get immunized.
What is says is that, if you're opting out
of your right and responsibility to vaccine,
then you also have to bear the burden of opting
out of the benefits of organized education.
LISA STARK: Here in Vermont, parents have
at most six months from the start of school
to either make sure their child has all the
required vaccinations or to claim an exemption.
If they don't, that child is no longer welcome
at school.
School nurse Pruitt says no student has been
excluded from her school yet, but some have
come close.
She believes the new law has had an impact.
NANCY PRUITT: So we had a 2.3 percent increase
on our student body being fully vaccinated.
LISA STARK: And do you think that's because
of the change in the law?
NANCY PRUITT: I do.
LISA STARK: As for Hockett, she's focused
on a return to normalcy.
Merin is considered cured of leukemia, and,
in August, was deemed healthy enough to resume
her vaccines.
So, this school year, Merin's parents hope
she can count on her own immunity, not just
others, to stay healthy.
For the "PBS NewsHour" and Education Week,
I'm Lisa Stark in Burlington, Vermont.
