Where Are the Anti-Axers
New research has identified hotspots for philosophical and religious exemptions from vaccinations : paperwork that (in some states) you can fill out in lieu of getting your kindergarten vaccinated. Most are in rural areas, but 15 medium-sized cities have a dangerous mix of large populations and a large number of such exceptions.
They had no -Medical exception, along the way; all states allow health benefits for children with immune system disorders or other conditions that make vaccines too dangerous for them. Ironically, those children who cannot be vaccinated (and those who are too young to be vaccinated) are most at risk due to policies that allow healthy people to refuse vaccinations.
Why hotspots matter
One person cannot spread a vaccine-preventable disease on their own. Imagine that you went on vacation and got measles, and then came home and started coughing at all of your neighbors. If everyone is vaccinated, the disease won’t get far. (The measles vaccine is 97 percent effective for people who receive both recommended doses.) A few vaccinated people will be able to get infected and spread the disease (3 percent in our example), but this is simply not enough to weather the outbreak. … This is why it is a concern whenever there is an area with a lot of unvaccinated people – this is how measles spread at Disneyland in 2015 . You need a mix of a large number of people to cough up and a large percentage of those who are not vaccinated.
The researchers who mapped the above also looked for counties with over 400 kindergartens with non-medical exceptions. They found 15, and the largest cities in each of these counties are:
- Phoenix, AZ (2947 exemptions in 2016-2017)
- Salt Lake City, Utah
- Seattle, Washington
- Portland, Oregon
- Troy, Michigan
- Provo, UT
- Houston, TX
- Fort Worth, TX
- Plano, TX
- Warren, Michigan
- Detroit, Michigan
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Austin, TX
- Kansas City, Missouri
- Spokane, Washington (405 exceptions)
If you’re surprised California didn’t make the list, it’s because after the measles outbreak at Disneyland, the state passed legislation removing non-medical benefits. The following year, California saw a spike in the number of children who were supposedly medically unvaccinated , but overall, the number of exemptions dropped and more children were vaccinated .
But the fact is, there are probably more hotspots than just the ones listed above. It’s not like vaccine opponents are taking their teens to the doctor on the day the California law is passed; unvaccinated children (and adults!) still exist. States that also lack benefits can have a large number of unvaccinated people, especially if state law makes it easy to obtain not entirely fair medical exemptions.