US kindergarten vaccination rates slip as exemptions reach record high
New CDC figures show a slight nationwide dip in kindergarten MMR vaccination rates alongside a record jump in non-medical exemptions, which health experts link to confusion sown by the administration.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released new kindergarten vaccination data showing a modest but broad decline, a week after President Donald Trump made misleading claims about vaccines, including that some doses are "the size of a soda bottle."
While the CDC's brief statement said overall vaccination rates remained high, physicians voiced concern. Dr Paul Offit of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia noted that immunization rates fell for all vaccines, declined in more than half of US states, and that at least 280,000 kindergarteners missed the MMR vaccine.
Record rise in exemptions
Non-medical vaccine exemptions among kindergarteners rose 17% over the past school year, from 3.6% to 4.2% nationally — the largest single-year increase on record. MMR vaccination itself dropped just 0.1 percentage point, to 92.4%, meaning most parents continue to vaccinate their children.
Low vaccination rates remain concentrated in certain pockets, such as Idaho and Ohio, as the US experiences its worst measles year since 1991, with hundreds of cases reported in Utah and South Carolina. In Cleveland, by contrast, local health officials reported improvement, with kindergarten vaccination rising from 68% to 76% in recent years — though director Dr David Margolius said federal-level confusion is undermining that progress.
Executive order and criticism
On 10 August, Trump signed an executive order calling for the number of routinely recommended childhood vaccines to be cut from 17 diseases to 11, and for the MMR vaccine to be administered as three separate doses rather than one, claiming without evidence that separate doses are safer. Critics point to logistical, legal and manufacturing obstacles, since drug makers have not produced standalone measles, mumps or rubella vaccines in decades.
Offit criticized Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, describing him as an anti-vaccine activist rather than an effective public health leader. According to the World Health Organization, widespread measles vaccination saved an estimated 59 million lives worldwide between 2000 and 2024.
