‘The risks are higher:’ Children’svaccination rates in Mass. steady, butcracks show in coverage

By: Jason Laughlin

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

At first glance, newly released data on immunization rates among children
in Massachusetts seem to validate the efforts by state officials to lead a
national resistance to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s antivax ideology.

And indeed, overall vaccination rates this school year held firm, according to the Department of Public Health, itself an accomplishment at a time when the federal government is aggressively trying to reverse decades of time-tested immunization policy.

Yet even here, home to the measles vaccine and the nation’s first public
health department, there are concerning hints of slippage.

Consider: Kindergarten classes in 86 schools now do not have enough
vaccinated children to reach the recommended level of immunity from
whooping cough, and 163 kindergarten classes haven’t reached herd immunity rates for measles.