The vaccine bill was propped up by media reports of Vermont having one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.
It is important to consider that school entry is currently the “gate” through which state public health officials try to push vaccination. So it makes sense to look at the vaccination rates at school entry time, not rates in two year olds.
Using vaccination rates among children between 19 and 35 months old, before the “school gate” has been encountered, lawmakers were led to believe that Vermont’s vaccine rate was 65 percent and this caused a lot of confusion as to motives and methods.
Let’s go back to facts. Here is what the Vermont Health Department reported to the CDC for the 2010-2011 school year:
| 2010-2011 % of kindergartners vaccinated | |||
| doses | public school | private school | |
| Polio | 3 | 91.9% | 88.8% |
| Diphtheria | 4 | 91.6% | 89.0% |
| Tetanus | 4 | 91.6% | 89.0% |
| Pertussis | 4 | 91.6% | 89.0% |
| Rubella | 2 | 89.9% | 85.0% |
| Measles | 2 | 89.9% | 85.0% |
| Mumps | 2 | 89.9% | 85.0% |
| Hepatitis B | 3 | 95.5% | 88.1% |
| Chicken Pox | 2 | 88.4% | 77.1% |
| TOTAL | 26 by K | ||
| Source: http://www2.cdc.gov/nip/schoolsurv/schoolrpt1.asp?st1=122529 | |||
Again, since school entry is currently the “gate” through which state public health officials try to push vaccination, it makes little sense to look at vaccination rates in two year olds and to blame those using an exemption at school entry time, on these low rates.
For more on this topic, see http://www.scribd.com/doc/85943667/VT-S-199-amp-HB-527-Information
Note that for daycare, children are asked to receive an additional 8 doses of two different (Haemophilus influenzae b and pneumococcal) vaccines at age 2 months, 4 months, 6 months and 12 months.
= 34 vaccine doses between birth and age 6.