NC doctors seeing bump in child vaccine exemption, distrust from parents

The CDC released a report Thursday showing childhood vaccine exemptions are at an all-time high.

The report shows the exemptions have spiked since COVID. North Carolina had a 2.4% exemption in the 2022-23 school year, an increase of .5% from year before. Forty states in total saw an increase in exemptions.

In North Carolina, vaccinations are required before students can attend school. The CDC report found that 3% of children entering kindergarten during the 2022-2023 school year were granted a vaccine exemption from their state.

Two local pediatricians told WRAL News about what they're seeing and why vaccines are so important.

Pediatrician Dr. Lori Langdon said while the increasing exemption rate is concerning, most parents are vaccinating their kids.

"It's important to know, that the majority of people are not refusing vaccines," Langdon said. "The majority of people are protecting their own child and the majority of children around their child by receiving the recommended vaccines."

The CDC report did not cite reasons for those exemptions, but pediatricians like Langdon say distrust around vaccinations started during the pandemic.

"We have noticed an increasing number of people who refuse vaccines to protect their child," Langdon said. "We worry a lot about this because because many of the times we investigate and their beliefs and opinions are based on disinformation they received on the internet."

According to the CDC, North Carolina's childhood vaccination rates are at or above 95%. That's an important threshold for herd immunity.

"When you exceed five percent of exempted vaccinations you are potentially increasing the risk for vaccine preventable outbreaks," said Dr. Sherali Parmar with Cornerstone Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. "As this percentage of exemptions rises our risk of outbreaks of say chicken pox or say measles rises with that, so it is concerning."

Parmar has been practicing at Cornerstone for 16 years. Parmar said she's seeing more questions from patients, which is welcome.

"In general, I would say 97% of our patient families are sticking with the schedule that's prescribed," Parmar said. "But we do have families that express hesitancy or would like to delay vaccinations."