CDC: Idaho kindergartners have one of lowest vaccination rates in nation

A new report published by the Center for Disease Control shows Idaho has one of the lowest vaccination rates for kindergarteners in the country.

In the state of Idaho, students are supposed to get vaccinated before enrolling in public school, but the state does allow parents to send un-vaccinated students to school if they file an exemption form with the school.

KTVB’s Joe Parris looked at both sides of the continuing Idaho vaccination controversy.

The new report says about 89 percent of kindergarteners in Idaho public schools are vaccinated for MMR, DTaP and varicella.

Those vaccination rates are among the lowest in the country.

“Vaccines do work, and that’s, why we encourage them,” said Rafe Hewett with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

Hewett says they advise all parents without medical exemptions to get their kids vaccinated.

But, the new data from the CDC isn’t too different from years past.

“What we did see with the school data, a lot of that data did remain flat line to years past, our exemption rate trends up a little bit,” said Hewett.

In the last year, Idaho’s vaccination exemption rate for students enrolled in kindergarten went from 6.5 percent to 7.1 percent.

“I never had my children vaccinated, I personally had chosen to do vaccines and had some unpleasant experiences, so choose not to,” said Sara Brady.

She sends her kids to public school and chooses not to vaccinate her children, which is perfectly legal in Idaho.

All parents like Brady have to do is sign an exemption indicating their personal choice to not vaccinate.

“Really honestly what it comes done to is, it is my right to decide if you are going to inject something in my child or not, that’s my right and I’m going to keep that right,” said Brady.

Regardless of what a parent chooses to do, Brady says she hopes all parent knows there are options out there.

“I am happy to see when people are taking their exemptions, that tells me that they know what their rights are and I just want them to be educated either way. If you are going to vaccinate, know what those risks are, if you are not going to vaccinate, know what those risks are.”

The department of health and welfare says they respect a parents decision, but their message stays the same.

“Parents choose to take measures to help reduce the chance of a harmful thing happening to their child so in the same sense, that’s what we do with vaccinations. It increases your chances of preventing disease.”

“We wouldn’t choose it for our own family, but we would never stop you from choosing it.”

The CDC report includes data from 99.6 percent of Idaho kindergarten students.

The Department of Health and Welfare says it is important to note that if parents decide to exempt their child from even one vaccine, their child is included in the pool of kids with exemptions, so it is entirely possible that kids in the exemption pool are still vaccinated.

Health and welfare admits all vaccines are not 100 percent effective, but they say immunization is the best way to prevent your child from getting sick.