California Vaccination Rate Hits 20-Year High After New Law Goes Into Effect

sputniknews.com

The vaccination rate in California among kindergarteners has hit a 20-year high as the result of stricter inoculation laws that make it much more difficult for parents to opt their children out.

Between the passage of the new regulation in 2015 and now, the rate of kindergarteners with all their state-required vaccinations increased from 92.6 percent to 95.6 percent statewide. The law rolled out on July 1, 2016, prevents unvaccinated children from enrolling in California public schools (barring a medical or allergy-related exemption).

The new law came about as a result of a measles outbreak in 2014 that started in Disneyland and spread throughout the state. Some 150 Californians were infected, and MIT epidemiologists claimed that the outbreak was the result of parents refusing to vaccinate their children.

"It is gratifying to see that in the course of just one school year, more children — and the public at large — are now more fully protected from preventable diseases," said State Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) in a statement. Allen was one of the bill's strongest proponents.

The law requires children entering kindergarten as well as seventh grade to receive vaccinations for illnesses such as measles, whooping cough, polio and hepatitis B among others. It required inoculation as a condition for enrollment in the state public school system, and removed religious or personal beliefs as a reason to opt out of vaccination. 

California Governor Jerry Brown said in 2015 that religious and personal beliefs are not reason enough to endanger children or their peers. "The science is clear that vaccines dramatically protect children against a number of infectious and dangerous diseases," Brown said at the time.