Vaccination Rates Hit Record-Breaking Low for Third Year in a Row as Religious Exemptions Reach Record High

[Hol]

by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

Vaccination rates for U.S. kindergartners decreased last year while the percentage of children granted religious exemptions from school immunization requirements reached a record high, according to data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The rate for the diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccine was 92.1% during the 2024-2025 school year, compared to 92.3% in the 2023-2024 school year. For the 2019-2020 school year, which was pre-COVID-19, it was 94.9%.

For the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and polio vaccines, the rate was 92.5% in 2024-2025, down from 92.7% in 2023-2024 and from 95.2% in 2019-2020.

As vaccination rates have decreased, the percentage of students with nonmedical exemptions — including religious or philosophical exemptions — has increased. The number rose from 3.3% during the 2023-2024 school year to 3.6% in 2024-2025.

According to The Associated Press (AP), the 2024-2025 school year was “the third record-breaking year in a row for the exemption rate.” The percentage of students with medical exemptions has remained around 0.2% in recent years.

Vaccination Rates Hit Record-Breaking Low for Third Year in a Row as Religious Exemptions Reach Record High

In a statement released Thursday on vaccination rates, the CDC said, “The decision to vaccinate is a personal one. Parents should consult their health care providers on options for their families.”

tdefender.substack.com

 

[Hol]

American Academy of Pediatrics Wants to Shut Down Religious Vaccine Exemptions​

…
Kim Mack Rosenberg, general counsel for Children’s Health Defense, told The Defender that religious freedom is a “hot-button” issue nationwide.

She said:

“The AAP’s statement calling for an end to religious exemptions to immunization ignores constitutionally protected rights regarding religious freedom and potentially is in violation of other laws as well. AAP blatantly suggests that schools discriminate against families with faith-based reasons to not take some or all vaccines.

“To claim otherwise is to play word games — just as AAP suggests that families are not forced to take vaccines that conflict with their religious beliefs but instead that families simply must choose, in those instances, between attending school and staying true to their religious values.”

Dr. Michelle Perro, author of “What’s Making Our Children Sick?: How Industrial Food Is Causing an Epidemic of Chronic Illness, and What Parents (and Doctors) Can Do About It,” criticized the move by the AAP.

“As a pediatrician committed to informed consent and patient rights based on non-biased science, I strongly support the continued access to medical, religious and philosophical vaccine exemptions,” she said.

American Academy of Pediatrics Wants to Shut Down Religious Vaccine Exemptions

The American Academy of Pediatrics today said religious and philosophical vaccine exemptions are “problematic” and should be prohibited for children attending daycare and school in the U.S. Critics said maintaining exemptions is essential in preserving parental choice, medical ethics and...

childrenshealthdefense.org

 

[Tall Timbers]

According to The Associated Press (AP), the 2024-2025 school year was “the third record-breaking year in a row for the exemption rate.” The percentage of students with medical exemptions has remained around 0.2% in recent years.

The differences are so small that they could be statistical or reporting errors. I wonder if there is any evidence that would indicate a vaccinated child got an illness that they'd been vaccinated against from a child not vaccinated for that illness.

 

[Hol]

It’s trending towards increased exemptions. In another thread a doctor was released from facing prison for lots of anti-covid stuff, and he wrote exemptions for anyone who wanted one. That may help people get exemptions.

is any evidence that would indicate a vaccinated child got an illness that they'd been vaccinated against from a child not vaccinated for that illness.

Good question.

 

[Ghoti Ichthus]

When I was a kid, getting measles, mumps, German measles, chickenpox, etc. were part of being a kid. There weren't all the fancy-schmancy vaccines for childhood diseases, and those that existed weren't very widespread. During measles outbreaks, we'd hear of a few kids that died in the Twin Cities. A handful a year. Schools didn't close down, and there were times that there were very few children in some classrooms. In exchange for getting sick, we got lifetime immunity. Our teachers didn't get sick because they were immune from having the illnesses when they were kids. To me, this is better than the vaccines that they're finding out now have waning efficacy enough years/decades later, and which created horrible problems for some kids.

However, for something like polio or smallpox, I think the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risk.

And maybe for childhood disease vaccinations for high-risk kids, or kids, who have high-risk family members.

As @Tall Timbers brought up up-thread, is there evidence of a vaccinated kid catching that illness from an unvaccinated kid?

 

[Ghoti Ichthus]

American Academy of Pediatrics Wants to Shut Down Religious Vaccine Exemptions​

…
Kim Mack Rosenberg, general counsel for Children’s Health Defense, told The Defender that religious freedom is a “hot-button” issue nationwide.

She said:

“The AAP’s statement calling for an end to religious exemptions to immunization ignores constitutionally protected rights regarding religious freedom and potentially is in violation of other laws as well. AAP blatantly suggests that schools discriminate against families with faith-based reasons to not take some or all vaccines.

“To claim otherwise is to play word games — just as AAP suggests that families are not forced to take vaccines that conflict with their religious beliefs but instead that families simply must choose, in those instances, between attending school and staying true to their religious values.”

Since there's a requirement for children to attend school, funding is based at least in part on headcount, and government is mandated to fund schools, maybe this means the government is required to at least partially fund private and/or faith-based schools, which don't require vaccinations, so children, whose faith prohibits at least some vaccinations, have equal opportunity with children, whose beliefs don't prohibit vaccination?

Bet a lot of AAP members don't send their precious children to public school, and I bet a lot of them trade medical exemptions for their children among themselves.

 

[dwb]

Evil and selfish people have given vaccines a bad name. Especially when you read about them wanting to spray their vaccines on produce, adding to dental floss, injecting into meat, combining vaccines, and other methods. I am now very suspicious of anything I put into my body.

 

[Margery]

Who could possibly have thought that forcing a vaccine on entire populations around the planet with drastic side effects on a scale never seen before in approved vaccines would scare parents off from vaccinating their little ones?

Strange right?

 

[Hol]

If MAHA could possibly follow the money trail maybe we could get some traction to uproot the bad guys. Unfortunately it seems that many in congress are paid off by big pharma.

 

[Ghoti Ichthus]

If honest scientists, medical people (including ND, OD, DACHM, and other non-MDs/non-PharmDs), etc. were hired to evaluate each vaccine in production for bad ingredients, like most of the preservatives, and any vaccine containing such were banned from production and use, it would go a long way toward restoring confidence. Many bad ingredients are already known, so a lot of the work would actually be very simple and straightforward. If dirty and other hazardous vaccines weren't approved for use, BIGVaccine would have to clean up its act.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, vaccines, which work differently than traditional vaccines, need to be called something else/clearly differentiated from "regular" vaccines, AND how they work/what they do and don't do needs to be openly and clearly disclosed and explained. Along with the known and possible hazards

 

[janeelaine]

When I was a kid, getting measles, mumps, German measles, chickenpox, etc. were part of being a kid. There weren't all the fancy-schmancy vaccines for childhood diseases, and those that existed weren't very widespread. During measles outbreaks, we'd hear of a few kids that died in the Twin Cities. A handful a year. Schools didn't close down, and there were times that there were very few children in some classrooms. In exchange for getting sick, we got lifetime immunity. Our teachers didn't get sick because they were immune from having the illnesses when they were kids. To me, this is better than the vaccines that they're finding out now have waning efficacy enough years/decades later, and which created horrible problems for some kids.

However, for something like polio or smallpox, I think the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risk.

And maybe for childhood disease vaccinations for high-risk kids, or kids, who have high-risk family members.

As @Tall Timbers brought up up-thread, is there evidence of a vaccinated kid catching that illness from an unvaccinated kid?

i noticed on some medicaid ad sent to me today that it said part of a child's "well visit" with their doctor includes "vaccinations to help provide immunity against life-threatening diseases"

"help" provide immunity?
not PROVIDING immunity against disease?
i had to wonder if this newfound, wishy-washy verbiage was covering for cases where a kid gets covid even though they took the "vaccine." because its really weird to word it as "help" when we are talking about being immune to something. it shouldnt merely help, if its true immunity.

 

[Ghoti Ichthus]

i noticed on some medicaid ad sent to me today that it said part of a child's "well visit" with their doctor includes "vaccinations to help provide immunity against life-threatening diseases"

"help" provide immunity?
not PROVIDING immunity against disease?
i had to wonder if this newfound, wishy-washy verbiage was covering for cases where a kid gets covid even though they took the "vaccine." because its really weird to word it as "help" when we are talking about being immune to something. it shouldnt merely help, if its true immunity.

Vaccines, including traditional (non-mRNA) vaccines aren't 100 percent.

Using measles vaccine as an example,

"The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that measles antibodies develop in approximately 95 percent of children vaccinated at 12 months and 98 percent of children vaccinated at 15 months or older. It is estimated that about 2-5 percent of children, who receive the vaccine at 12 months of age or younger or who only receive a single dose of MMR, fail to be protected. A second dose of MMR is thought to stimulate a protective immune response in about 99 percent of vaccine recipients.

From 1963, when the measles vaccine was first introduced in the United States, until December of 1989, public health officials recommended that all children receive a single dose of measles vaccine beginning at 12 months of age.

During this time, however, measles cases and outbreaks occurred among vaccinated children. In 1973, Dr. Stanley Plotkin warned that vaccinated children could still get measles and that “a history of previous vaccination cannot be assumed to exclude measles as the cause of an exanthum rash, whether typical or atypical.” He said that, “about 5 percent of vacinees do not respond and presumably remain susceptible,” which he described as “primary vaccine failures.”"

More

Measles Vaccine Effectiveness - National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC)

Discover how effective Measles Vaccine is in preventing Measles.

www.nvic.org

 

[Margery]

Vaccines, including traditional (non-mRNA) vaccines aren't 100 percent.

ALL of them, always! NONE are 100%.

I knew that for a FACT during my nurses training back in the early to mid 70s. So did everyone else in medical circles, and so did the public health nurses I knew.

LONG before mRNA all the old vaccines had less than 100%.

That is why the emphasis on "herd immunity" which was the concept behind mass immunizations. The idea is that if enough people are vaccinated, it breaks the chain of transmission. Putting a roadblock in the way of big outbreaks.

Herd immunity doesn't require 100% vaccine efficiency, it just requires a largish percentage of the population getting a vaccine that is more often effective than not.

Herd immunity allows for people to say no to vaccines- for health or religious or even just personal reasons. As long as most people get vaccinated that doesn't matter.

Because the goal is just to slow down an outbreak, and allow it to fizzle out.

That's how it's always worked.

Before we had vaccines for measles etc we relied on quarantine laws. Those were administered by the local health authorities, and people were pretty good about following the rules to stay home when sick. They weren't the mass lockdowns that were in force during the first months of Covid. You stayed home while ill about 10 days for mumps or measles and that was it.

People aren't used to seeing the kids that were damaged by measles though because most people today grew up after the measles mumps rubella vax became routine. I was just on the cusp of that generation, so I DID see the results in my early nursing years.

Measles made some kids brain damaged, Rubella destroyed some unborn babies eyes and ears so they were born deaf blind and mumps made some boys sterile. Most kids didn't succumb, but enough did that the vaccines made sense. That was back in the good old days when scientists actually kept accurate scores of the percent who were seriously harmed by the disease versus the percent who were seriously harmed by the vaccine.

Stuff that was COMPLETELY ignored during Covid allowing vaccines out the door that should NEVER have been allowed as the risk benefit ratio was skewed so far into the risk category that the risks completely outweighed the benefits.

 

[Cheeky200386]

ALL of them, always! NONE are 100%.

I knew that for a FACT during my nurses training back in the early to mid 70s. So did everyone else in medical circles, and so did the public health nurses I knew.

LONG before mRNA all the old vaccines had less than 100%.

That is why the emphasis on "herd immunity" which was the concept behind mass immunizations. The idea is that if enough people are vaccinated, it breaks the chain of transmission. Putting a roadblock in the way of big outbreaks.

Herd immunity doesn't require 100% vaccine efficiency, it just requires a largish percentage of the population getting a vaccine that is more often effective than not.

Herd immunity allows for people to say no to vaccines- for health or religious or even just personal reasons. As long as most people get vaccinated that doesn't matter.

Because the goal is just to slow down an outbreak, and allow it to fizzle out.

That's how it's always worked.

Before we had vaccines for measles etc we relied on quarantine laws. Those were administered by the local health authorities, and people were pretty good about following the rules to stay home when sick. They weren't the mass lockdowns that were in force during the first months of Covid. You stayed home while ill about 10 days for mumps or measles and that was it.

People aren't used to seeing the kids that were damaged by measles though because most people today grew up after the measles mumps rubella vax became routine. I was just on the cusp of that generation, so I DID see the results in my early nursing years.

Measles made some kids brain damaged, Rubella destroyed some unborn babies eyes and ears so they were born deaf blind and mumps made some boys sterile. Most kids didn't succumb, but enough did that the vaccines made sense. That was back in the good old days when scientists actually kept accurate scores of the percent who were seriously harmed by the disease versus the percent who were seriously harmed by the vaccine.

Stuff that was COMPLETELY ignored during Covid allowing vaccines out the door that should NEVER have been allowed as the risk benefit ratio was skewed so far into the risk category that the risks completely outweighed the benefits.

I'm really curious what your thoughts are on Suzanne Humphries' research and book in Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines, and the Forgotten History. It was quite interesting and eye opening regarding the history of vaccines and medicine.

 

[janeelaine]

I'm really curious what your thoughts are on Suzanne Humphries' research and book in Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines, and the Forgotten History. It was quite interesting and eye opening regarding the history of vaccines and medicine.

similarly, i love reading vaccinesandchristianity.org articles.

a dr. robert mendelsohn says things like, "this vaccine was released after the disease had already been almost eradicated." he says that about many specific vaccines (in How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor).

but, i also see modern critics saying thats a myth.

hard to know whats true sometimes, but the sheer commercialism of prescription drugs is enough to make me suspicious! i just cant take them seriously.

"during covid," i remember there was a creepy commercial i saw when at my brothers house, for moderna or pfizer dont remember, but it literally had a creepy voice saying, "take the covid vaccine"

so creepy.

 

[Cheeky200386]

similarly, i love reading vaccinesandchristianity.org articles.

a dr. robert mendelsohn says things like, "this vaccine was released after the disease had already been almost eradicated." he says that about many specific vaccines (in How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor).

but, i also see modern critics saying thats a myth.

hard to know whats true sometimes, but the sheer commercialism of prescription drugs is enough to make me suspicious! i just cant take them seriously.

"during covid," i remember there was a creepy commercial i saw when at my brothers house, for moderna or pfizer dont remember, but it literally had a creepy voice saying, "take the covid vaccine"

so creepy.

I have that book too! I have a book that has a more favorable view of vaccines but even that doctor admits that the vaccine trials are not neutral and are funded by pharmaceutical companies and he would like to see that change in order to gain parent’s trust again.

After working with big pharmaceutical companies in a psychiatric research clinic, I saw enough to turn me away and remain skeptical forever. First hand experience is powerful and I try to share my story to help others see the corruption in even the clinical trials of medications.

 

[Hol]

After working with big pharmaceutical companies in a psychiatric research clinic, I saw enough to turn me away and remain skeptical forever. First hand experience is powerful and I try to share my story to help others see the corruption in even the clinical trials of medications.

You reminded me that as I was web surfing for info about taking copper supplements yesterday, I ran across this podcast: Holistic Psychiatry.

There really are some of us, or times for all of use when it’s obvious that a type of intervention would help. I am so grateful for studies into supplements like copper, zinc, electrolytes, etc. for all sorts of reasons. Our foods are degraded and we often choose the empty processed junk. Plus we may suffer exposure to toxins, molds, etc. If we suffer a setback, it could be physical like diabetes, or emotional, or cognitive—helped with supplements instead of meds.

If you happen to catch that podcast, I’d be interested in your thoughts.

 

[Cheeky200386]

You reminded me that as I was web surfing for info about taking copper supplements yesterday, I ran across this podcast: Holistic Psychiatry.

There really are some of us, or times for all of use when it’s obvious that a type of intervention would help. I am so grateful for studies into supplements like copper, zinc, electrolytes, etc. for all sorts of reasons. Our foods are degraded and we often choose the empty processed junk. Plus we may suffer exposure to toxins, molds, etc. If we suffer a setback, it could be physical like diabetes, or emotional, or cognitive—helped with supplements instead of meds.

If you happen to catch that podcast, I’d be interested in your thoughts.

I’d love to hear it. Do you know who is the host of the podcast or where I can find it?

 

[Hol]

I’d love to hear it. Do you know who is the host of the podcast or where I can find it?

Here’s her webpage: Podcast — Alice W. Lee, MD, ABIHM

She’s more into zinc, so here’s a pro copper supplement YouTube: - YouTube

 

[janeelaine]

I have that book too! I have a book that has a more favorable view of vaccines but even that doctor admits that the vaccine trials are not neutral and are funded by pharmaceutical companies and he would like to see that change in order to gain parent’s trust again.

After working with big pharmaceutical companies in a psychiatric research clinic, I saw enough to turn me away and remain skeptical forever. First hand experience is powerful and I try to share my story to help others see the corruption in even the clinical trials of medications.

wow thats awesome we have the same book lol. wonder if you have read his others as well- changed my life!! (confessions of a medical heretic and malepractice: how doctors manipulate women)

would love to hear a tidbit, if you care to share, about what you saw in the psychiatric research clinic. dont want to take up a ton of your time, just an overview example would be great if you can, or more lol. thanks for telling me what you have.