Here & Now

How Personal Waivers Impact Wisconsin's Vaccination Numbers

Frederica Freyberg:
Turning to health news, a new Kaiser Family Foundation survey shows adults with a higher usage of AI chatbots are more likely to believe false information about vaccines. Overall, child vaccination rates have decreased globally since the pandemic. But as “Here & Now” student journalist Elijah Pines points out, vaccination rates have been decreasing and Wisconsin parents seeking waivers increasing since the mid ’80s.

Elijah Pines:
Wisconsin student immunization law mandates that any student wanting to enter the public school system must have the required vaccines. If a student doesn’t meet the requirements, parents may be charged up to $25 per day their child is noncompliant. But no one in Wisconsin has been fined under the statute that mandates compliance since at least 2018, which is as far back as court data tracks charges. Children can instead get a waiver and be exempt from vaccination if there is a medical or religious reason, or for reasons of personal conviction. A personal conviction waiver is when a parent personally believes their child should be exempt from a vaccine. Wisconsin is one of 19 states that allow for personal conviction waivers, and their popularity has been steadily rising over the past couple of decades. At the same time, the number of students up to date on required vaccines has gone down. For public health advocates, the numbers are concerning, but vaccination rates in public health is more nuanced than numbers alone. For starters, despite personal conviction waivers going up, the vast majority of students get the required vaccines, 86.4% in the last school year. Still, fewer students are meeting requirements than they used to. One reason is because there are more required shots than there were when the law was first introduced. From three required vaccines in 1975 to seven required vaccines today. Any time there has been a change in requirements, compliance goes down. These numbers also track all required vaccines, both who’s waiving some and who is waiving them all. Last year, only 1.3% of students had waivers exempting them from all vaccines, and that’s lower than it was in the previous year. Ultimately, the state’s job to control public health has to respect individuals’ decisions, and a parent can only control what’s best for their own child. So how can parents make the best choice when there’s fewer vaccines protecting the public? According to Wisconsin DHS, the best answer is talking with the child’s doctor, saying public health and health care providers across the state are here to help families break down these barriers to keep families safe from vaccine preventable diseases. Reporting from Madison, I’m Elijah Pines for “Here & Now.”