Vaccination rates in Whitman County are above state average
Measles Mumps Rubella Vaccine Exemption Law took effect July 2019
September 23, 2019
A recent report shows nearly 90 percent of kindergarteners in Whitman County were vaccinated in the 2018-19 school year.
According to the County School Immunization Dashboard from the Washington State Department of Health, 88.9 percent of kindergarteners in Whitman County received all their vaccinations. Those kindergartners were vaccinated for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, hepatitis B, varicella, and measles, mumps and rubella, also known as MMR.
The state average was 86.3 percent, according to the immunization dashboard.
Michelle Hyatt, lead nurse for the Pullman School District, said vaccines are administered by a physician or at a clinic. Some pharmacies will also administer vaccines during certain times of the year.
Hyatt said most students in the Pullman School District are vaccinated. Hyatt said some school children can be exempt from vaccinations.
“All exemptions — medical, personal or religious — have to be signed off by a physician stating that they have explained to them the risks and benefits of vaccines,” she said. “We don’t have a lot of kids with exemptions.”
According to WSDH, the MMR Vaccine Exemption Law took effect in late July 2019. The new law “removes the personal and philosophical option to exempt [school] children from the MMR … vaccine.”
Hyatt said measles outbreaks have recently occurred in places such as Spokane and Moscow. WSDH also states the recent outbreaks as the reason for the new law.
“It is something that they haven’t seen in many years, and then suddenly they’re seeing these outbreaks of measles,” she said. “Many states have actually gone to no longer allowing exemptions.”
Hyatt said symptoms of measles vary depending on the patient, but most include rashes and fevers.
Herd immunization protects individuals who cannot get vaccinated, she said. When a group of individuals gets vaccinated as a general whole, this protects an unvaccinated individual, thus the term “herd immunization.”
“We have a subset of students who cannot be immunized for medical reasons,” she said. “If you have a certain percentage of people immunized against a vaccine-preventable disease, then chances are that you won’t see that disease in your community.”
According to the immunization dashboard, 3.5 percent of kindergartners were exempt from vaccines in Whitman County. The state had a 5 percent average of kindergarteners exempt from vaccinations.
“The families that had an exemption, a personal exemption, for MMR last year, are no longer compliant,” she said.
Whitman County had 6.2 percent of kindergarteners who were not in compliance with the required vaccinations, according to the immunization dashboard. This means those kindergarteners were unvaccinated and were not exempt for medical, religious or personal reasons.
Hyatt said the 2019-20 immunization records for the Pullman School District are due Nov. 1.
Tod Merley • Sep 24, 2019 at 2:51 pm
So use of the artificial inoculation attempt medical products in Whitman County is pushing away the control group that could exist and show us what happens when they are not used. I hold that it as simply unethical to make a claim without the data to back up that claim.
I hear that there are trillions of kinds of virus and bacteria, and similar numbers of the rest of the less than one hundred individual distinct potential pathogens we have artificial inoculation attempt medical products for. Last I checked one thousand four hundred of these “bugs” were considered to be associated with human disease. So we go against natures trillions with a “smart gun” capable of possibly taking out less than one hundred? Silly us! Gullible us!
I really doubt that this strategy lessens the disease or death overall burden. Indeed, from the data I have seen it appears that my original thought that if you block one you save none it is rather – block one enable many.
At any rate we must gather the data which would either show that the overall disease and death rates are actually lessened by using artificial inoculation attempt medical products, that the rates stay the same, or that the rates of disease and death increase when these invasive medical procedures which pierce the skin are used. In the mean time use, advertisement, and protection from liability must immediately cease until we do have the data to know what we are doing to ourselves with these “medical?” products.