Nearly 10% of Oregon kindergartners have a non-medical exemption to some or all of the vaccines that are required to attend school. That’s according to numbers released Thursday by the Oregon Health Authority.
The number of parents requesting non-medical exemptions to vaccines has been steadily increasing in Oregon. The OHA said those numbers, the highest exemption rate the state’s ever recorded, increase the chance for an outbreak of highly contagious, previously eradicated diseases like measles.
About 8% of Lane County kindergarteners had at least one non-medical vaccine exemption, putting the county just below the state average.
In Benton and Lincoln Counties, 7% kindergartners have exemptions.
Meanwhile, roughly 11% of Linn, Douglas and Deschutes kindergartners are exempt.
Statewide, the county with the lowest non-medical exemption rate for kindergartners was Jefferson, at 5.1%. Its neighbor to the east, Wheeler County, had the state’s highest vaccine exemption rate at 38.5%.
In a news release, Dean Sidelinger, health officer and state epidemiologist at Oregon Public Health, said the state is trying to educate families about the effectiveness, and safety of vaccines.
“Vaccines have transformed public health by dramatically reducing the burden of infectious diseases, enabling children to grow up in safe environments,” Sidelinger said. “The growing trend of nonmedical exemptions threatens to undo decades of progress and puts us all at risk. OHA is committed to providing accessible, science-based information to empower families to choose vaccination.”
While more kindergartners entering the school system do have exemptions for one or more vaccines, overall about 90.4% of Oregon students were fully vaccinated this year.
