The U.S. has seen a decline in childhood vaccination rates, with less than 93% of kindergarteners receiving all state-required vaccines in the 2023-2024 school year, down from about 95% before the Covid-19 pandemic. This drop coincides with an increase in exemptions, particularly non-medical ones, rising from 2.5% in 2019-2020 to 3.3% in 2023-2024. Public perception has also shifted, with only 40% of Americans considering childhood vaccines extremely important in 2024, compared to 58% in 2019. This trend is influenced by vaccine skepticism, which has been exacerbated by political, moral, and spiritual beliefs, as well as misinformation. Over three-quarters of U.S. states have MMR vaccination rates below the recommended 95% needed to prevent measles outbreaks, leaving approximately 280,000 school children unprotected. The first U.S. measles death in a decade occurred in Texas, where the vaccination rate was just below 82%.
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