Colorado’s vaccination rate held steady in the most recent school year, but pockets of the state remain vulnerable to outbreaks of measles and other diseases. Last school year, 92.1% of children from kindergarten to 12th grade had , which was virtually unchanged from the 2022-2023 school year.
Kindergarteners had lower compliance rates, with 90.1% either up to date on their shots or holding an exemption. About 93.
6% of all schoolchildren had their combined measles, mumps and rubella shots, which are among the most important because a person with measles can infect nine out of 10 unvaccinated people they come across, said Susan Lontine, executive director of Immunize Colorado. Only 88% of kindergarteners had been vaccinated against measles, though. “It’s still nowhere near the 95% we need for (population-level) protection,” she said.
While people develop individual immunity after getting vaccinated, “herd immunity” makes sure diseases can’t spread through the population, protecting those who can’t get vaccinated because of medical conditions and babies too young to receive their shots. In nine school districts, mostly in rural areas, fewer than 80% of kids have their measles, mumps and rubella shots, making them extremely vulnerable to outbreaks, Lontine said. During the 2019-2020 school year, 95% of K-12 students had either their shots or an exemption.
That dropped slightly during the 2020-2021 school year, and more significantly the following year. No one kno.
