Orange County Vaccination Rates High Throughout Schools

Outbreaks of preventable diseases across the country in recent months prompted debate over childhood vaccinations.

Nearly 150 Americans, most of them Californians, were sickened earlier this year in a measles outbreak that began at Disneyland.

California Governor Jerry Brown has now signed legislation that bans non-medical exemptions for parents.

In North Carolina, parents can opt out of vaccinating their children through medical or religious exemptions.

Orange County health officials released immunization records this week detailing vaccination rates in public and private schools.

Judy Butler is the community health services supervisor for the Orange County Health Department, and she says this information was compiled from an annual communicable disease report.

She says outbreaks of preventable diseases are up in some cases simply because there are more children who are not fully vaccinated.

“For one thing, we have more children who are not vaccinated because of parental choice,” Butler says. “Not a large number, the vast majority of our kids are vaccinated.

“[Outbreaks] just bring more attention to the fact that children who are not vaccinated are definitely at greater risk if they’re exposed to these diseases.”

Butler adds the risks for children who have been vaccinated also goes up as the percentage of unvaccinated children increases.

“Because the vaccines are not 100 percent effective,” she says, “the more often they are exposed, the more likely they are to become ill with one of the vaccine-preventable diseases as well. Even though they’re fully vaccinated.”

99.2 percent of students in Orange County Schools are vaccinated and 98.78 percent of Chapel Hill – Carrboro City School students are vaccinated. But that number drops to just below 96 percent for charter schools and just over 93 percent for private schools.

Those figures line up with Butler’s expectations.

“Because I’ve worked in the county for so long, I knew that we had a couple of private or charter schools where we had more parents who are not as inclined to vaccinate their children,” Butler says. “So, no, I can’t really say there was any surprise. Not to me anyway.”

Emerson Waldorf has the lowest vaccination rate throughout public and private schools in Orange County at just over 62 percent of student vaccinated. A reason for the dramatic drop at Emerson Waldorf is because 84 of the 222 students claim religious exemptions.

Butler says there is not verification required to justify a religious exemption in the Tar Heel state.

“North Carolina does not require any specific information,” she says. “All they require is that a parent say that they choose not to vaccinate their children for religious reasons.”

Butler adds there are medical exemptions to not vaccinate children as well.

“And we’re not talking because they didn’t feel good after their last vaccine or because they often ran a fever after a vaccine,” she says. “We’re talking about kids with serious medical problems that prohibit them from getting vaccines.”

Butler says a new tendency among parents has been to not vaccinate children due to fear of vaccinations causing other medical problems. But Butler says these have been proven to be nothing more than medical myths.

“A lot of the fears and a lot of the misinformation that parents had about vaccines causing certain disorders, such as Autism, has been disproven,” Butler says.

All rules governing vaccination rates are regulated at the state level.

You can find information regarding schools in the Orange County School System, Chapel Hill – Carrboro City School System and Orange County private and charter schools through these links.

Orange County Vaccination Rates High Throughout Schools

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