As I mentioned in a blog post last year, more AZ parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kids- using “personal exemptions” when they enroll their kids in school. This has jeopardized our immunization rates enough that this week’s measles case in Maricopa County could spread. We’ll know in a couple of weeks.
Vaccinating yourself and your kids is more about community protection than personal protection. We need just about everybody to participate and get vaccinated in order to get the herd immunity we all need to prevent the spread of diseases like measles. It’s a social contract that we have with each other to keep all of us healthy- just like it’s everyone’s responsibility to be a Good Samaritan when you see a car crash.
Last year we asked the UA’s Mel and Enid Zuckerman’s College of Public Health to conduct a Study Summary and provide Recommendations to overcome the trend toward increased vaccine exemptions. Using the study results, we developed and implemented an Action Plan to Address Vaccine Exemptions last year. Here’s a link to our Action Plan Summary with the details of the key interventions we’ve conducted over the last year.
