Georgia falls below herd immunity threshold as vaccine exemptions climb

This story also appeared in Georgia Recorder Kindergarten immunization rates are falling and vaccine exemptions are on the rise, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released this week. In a press release, the CDC said the data shows vaccine rates remain high and encourages parents to talk to their doctors about vaccine options. Nationally, vaccine rates for diseases like diphtheria, measles and polio hover around 92% for kindergarteners entering the 2025-2026 school year. In Georgia, that number sits around 89%, slightly up from last year's 87% vaccination rate. Roughly 5.1% of kindergarteners claimed a vaccine exemption this year, meaning they opted out of school vaccine requirements for personal or medical reasons, up from 4.8% last year. Georgia is also one of 24 states whose vaccine exemption rate now surpasses 5%. Only 0.1% of kindergarteners in the state were granted an exemption for medical reasons. That puts Georgia below the 92% immunity rate needed to ensure herd immunity from diseases like measles, which has infected more than 2,500 Americans this year according to the CDC. The new data also comes on the heels of a sweeping executive order from President Donald Trump that sought to reshape federal guidance on childhood vaccines and threatened legal action against states that don't allow personal or religious exemptions to school vaccine requirements. As he signed the order, Trump also echoed false claims linking vaccines to autism. Dr. Cecil Bennett, a primary care physician with Newnan Family Medicine, emphasized that any link between autism and vaccines is coincidental, and does not mean that vaccines caused autism. 'There's no doubt about the efficacy of vaccines and the importance of vaccines,' he said. 'So parents need to know that vaccines are safe and vaccines are effective.' He said the vaccine rates in Georgia and across the nation were a result of misinformation about vaccines and what he called a 'lack of leadership from Washington D.C.' He also encouraged parents to talk to their child's healthcare provider about their vaccine concerns rather than trying to navigate conflicting narratives about vaccines online. 'If you want to find information why your child should not be vaccinated, you can find that information [online],' he said. 'I would rather parents who talk to their child's pediatrician or their child's family physician and get correct information.' Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.