Decline in vaccination rates among Arizona kindergartners

The number of kindergartners who are vaccinated in Arizona has dropped by half, and only one in three schools in the state has “herd immunity.”

There are two specific reasons for the lag. Arizona parents may opt out of vaccines for their children if they sign an exemption form acknowledging the risk. The state health department also managed a free-vaccine program making it more difficult for families who don’t have insurance and rely on Medicaid to get their kids vaccinated.

Caitlin McGlade, an investigative reporter at “The Arizona Republic” and azcentral.com, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss why the vaccine rates have been trending downward within this demographic.

You can read McGlade’s report here.

“One, there is sort of nationwide distrust of vaccines and has been bubbling up since the pandemic started. There are two Arizona specific reasons. One, Arizona does have an exemption law so parents can choose not to get their kids vaccinated for personal beliefs, and then the other one is because the state up until recently managed its free-vaccine program in a way that drove a lot of providers out of the system,” said McGlade. 

In low income communities, it’s difficult to locate a provider that has the vaccines that are included in the program free of cost. 

“The overall idea from my sources in public health is that we’re seeing a decline among kids who are uninsured or are on Medicaid because it’s harder to find a provider that will actually have vaccines for them that are part of the program that’s free,” said McGlade. 

The free-vaccine program isn’t as beneficial as people believed it would be. 

“Maricopa County Health Department noticed that the vaccination rates were dropping a lot. They noticed that they were dropping among uninsured and Medicaid kids. So they launched a third party study essentially to determine what would be happening, and that third party study found that the number of providers providing free vaccines for kids who need them has been cut in half,” said McGlade.