<\/p>\n
Vials of the\u00a0measles, mumps and rubella vaccine are displayed in February\u00a0in Lubbock, Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Julio Cortez\/AP<\/p>\n
As national immunization rates trend downward, Connecticut, instead, continues to see increases in the number of schoolchildren receiving their annual shots, according to new federal and state data.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Around 98.6% of Connecticut kindergartners received the required measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine in the 2025-26 school year, a 0.4% increase from the previous year, according to the state Department of Health<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Connecticut<\/a> has the second highest MMR vaccination rate<\/a> among kindergarteners in the country, according to the\u00a0Centers for Disease Control.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve reached an all-time high,\u201d said state Department of Public Health commissioner Manisha Juthani during a press briefing on Tuesday, regarding MMR vaccines.\u00a0<\/p>\n For the United States as a whole, the opposite happened<\/a>, according to new\u00a0data from the CDC<\/a>. National MMR immunization rates among kindergarteners dropped to 92.4%, marking the fourth year of record-breaking lows.\u00a0Herd immunity is 95%.<\/p>\n Vaccination coverage among U.S. kindergartners also decreased for all reported vaccines from the previous year. The CDC said coverage for MMR, DTaP, polio and VAR dropped in more than half of the states.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n State experts attribute Connecticut\u2019s higher immunization rates to strict state requirements, health department initiatives, evidence-based recommendations and community outreach. And yet, pediatricians and public experts say families continue to raise questions around vaccine safety, reflecting a hesitancy they say is in part fueled by rhetoric from the federal government.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t think any parent wants their child to catch a vaccine-preventable illness,\u201d said Dr. Andrew Carlson, division head of primary care at Connecticut Children\u2019s Medical Center. \u201cI think there’s just concern about what they think is doing the right thing for their child, and making sure that that’s an informed decision is part of our job as a pediatrician.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n National vs. state exemptions\u00a0<\/p>\n All children attending public and private schools in Connecticut, as well as preschools and childcare centers, must get various vaccinations<\/a> depending on their grade level.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The state does not allow for personal belief exemptions, and repealed religious exemptions<\/a> in 2021. But students who had a valid exemption on file before the repeal were allowed to keep their exemptions for their remaining school years, through grade 12.<\/p>\n The percentage of Connecticut kindergartners with a religious vaccine exemption decreased from 0.02% to 0.01% during the 2025-2026 school year, according to the state Department of Health. Nationally, the non-medical exemption rate was 4% for the 2025-26 school year, according to CDC data.<\/p>\n Connecticut does allow medical exemptions, although typically a very small percentage of students qualify for it. Around 0.5% of Connecticut kindergartners had a medical exemption in 2025-26, a slight increase from the previous school year, according to state data.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Across the country, vaccine exemptions for both medical and nonmedical reasons rose in 41 states and the District of Columbia, with 24 states reporting exemptions exceeding 5%, according to the new CDC data.<\/p>\n Immunization medical exemptions are decided between providers and their individual patients. The role of DPH, Juthani explained, is simply to catalog submitted medical exemptions, offering a report at the end of the year.<\/p>\n Exemption rates can vary between states and regions \u2013 and even between Connecticut schools. State data shows that some Connecticut schools have higher rates of religious exemptions compared to others.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do know that there are some schools who might be lower than other schools, but overall in the state, it’s a very, very high vaccination rate overall,\u201d\u00a0Juthani said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Among public school kindergarten students in Connecticut, the MMR coverage rate was 98.7%, while private schools reported a coverage rate of 97.1%.<\/p>\n Although the exemptions are a small number of the total student population, Juthani said the concern is that a continued increase, especially nationally, could create gaps in immunity and leave undervaccinated schoolchildren vulnerable to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.\u00a0<\/p>\n Measles, in particular, continues to be a major concern for health departments nationwide heading into the new school year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n So far in 2026, there have been 2,566 confirmed measles cases nationwide, marking the highest annual number of cases in over three decades, according to the CDC.\u00a0<\/p>\n Connecticut has reported three measles cases, one of which was in a vaccinated adult.\u00a0Juthani credits the state\u2019s high overall immunization rates and subsequent herd immunity in preventing a full-blown outbreak.\u00a0<\/p>\n Changing federal landscape<\/p>\n Vaccine hesitancy is nothing new. In the early 2000s, Carlson said a lot of the concern focused on the disproven connection between immunizations and autism.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Nowadays parents are more concerned about potential side effects or adverse reactions to immunizations. They also have more questions about vaccine safety and how vaccines impact a person\u2019s entire immune system, especially with changing federal guidance.\u00a0<\/p>\n Answering questions often takes time, lengthy conversations about risks and benefits and overall trust between patient and provider.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the end of the day, \u00a0however, \u201cwhen you really look at the science, there’s nothing to support those fears,\u201d Carlson said. \u201cBut I can’t blame families for being nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n Under President Donald Trump\u2019s second term, federal officials have repeatedly questioned the efficacy of vaccines and attempted to roll back childhood vaccine requirements. The\u00a0latest development<\/a> includes a new executive order<\/a> signed by Trump that reduces the number of recommended childhood vaccines and directs them to be administered during separate visits. It also calls on the federal health department to further improve vaccine research and offer the MMR vaccine in three different single-disease shots, instead of the typical one dose.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Over the last 18 months, in addition, all 17 members of the CDC\u2019s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices were replaced, the CDC rolled back its stance that vaccines do not cause autism and it announced changes for the COVID-19 recommendations, without providing evidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u200b\u200bThe new committee also introduced several changes including reducing the number of diseases covered for children from 18 to 11, specifically removing its longstanding broad guidance for influenza, hepatitis A and B, meningococcal disease, rotavirus and RSV. The changes, however, are tied up in federal court.\u00a0<\/p>\n Connecticut officials and lawmakers \u200bhave been quick to clarify questions, offer resources and reaffirm the state\u2019s support for evidence-based vaccine recommendations. Juthani said health departments across the U.S. are working to change the narrative around immunizations in a way that encourages questions and conversations with their trusted provider.\u00a0<\/p>\n In Connecticut, for example, Juthani said they\u2019ve launched a Schoolhouse Rock-style web series that looks into the history of vaccines, how they are developed and fight off infections, and what the safety protocols are. She explained that the series is meant to \u201creach people from different walks of life\u201d and answer their questions in an informed way.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThere are many people who believe in vaccines. They’re not necessarily against all vaccines, but they’re just not sure if all vaccines are good for their kids. They may not be sure on the timing of vaccines. They may not be sure about a number of questions that they may have,\u201d Juthani said. \u201cAnd people just want to be treated with respect. They want to be heard, and they want their questions answered.\u201d<\/p>\n Patrick McCaslin contributed reporting.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vials of the\u00a0measles, mumps and rubella vaccine are displayed in February\u00a0in Lubbock, Texas.\u00a0 Julio Cortez\/AP As national immunization…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[86570,86569,168,170,169],"class_list":["post-412258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-all-daily-sites","tag-ct-insider","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}