Austin Schools Lead State In Number Of Non-Vaccinated Students

AUSTIN, TX -- Schools in Austin lead the state in the number of non-vaccinated students -- so-called "vaccine-exempt" kids whose parents are opposed to the shots based on religious or medical concerns -- according to new data.

The Austin ISD -- one of the state's largest school districts -- has the highest percentage of students with so-called "conscientous vaccine exemptions," at 2.02 percent, as CBS Austin reported. Percentage-wise, the numbers are much higher at the school level: Zilker Elementary had the most unvacci9nated students, at 10.45 percent; Sunset Valley Elementary followed with 9.64 percent; and Garza Independence High School at 9.41 percent, according to the data.

The Texas Tribune wrote about the high levels of vaccine-exempt schoolchildren last month. At 2.02 percent, Austin leads the state with the highest percentage of vaccine exemptions. Katy ISD, in the Houston area, was second with 1.22 percent; Northeast ISD in Bexar County was third, at 0.97 percent; followed by Cypress-Fairbanks ISD (also in the Houston area) with 0.83 percent.

The trend has health officials worried. Although the Texas Legislature allowed parents to opt out of vaccinating their children in 2003, an abundance of non-vaccinated students enhances the chances for disease to spread, one health official said.

"The fewer people that are immunized the greater chances that disease will spread," Coleen Christian, health educator for the City of Austin Health Department, told the news station.

The benefits of vaccination are widely known. According to Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, vaccines not only reduce illness and long-term disability, but also generate savings for health systems and families.

Yet according to the health data, those objecting to vaccinations in Central Texas tend to be members of a higher socioeconomic status and educational levels. Indeed, the numbers of the unvaccinated increase exponentially at private and charter schools in Austin. To wit: Austin Waldorf School, 40.51 percent; Austin Discovery School, 30.06 percent; AESA Prep Academy, 20.65 percent.

Austin Waldorf School Director Kathy McElveen told CBS Austin that the recorded numbers of the "vaccine-exempt" at her school don't necessarily mean all those students aren't vaccinated. They might have an altered vaccination schedule or have some, but not all, of their shots, she explained.

Other Central Texas school districts have even higher percentages than Austin ISD, the news station reports. Eanes ISD in Travis County has a 3.6 percent exemption rate; Dripping Springs ISD in Hays County, 4.15 percent; Round Rock ISD in Williamson County, 2.12 percent rate.

Christian -- a 25-year veteran of the medical field -- urges parents to listen to doctors and scientists in making an informed decision about whether or not to vaccinate their children. She told the news station about her own experience witnessing the spread of disease at the start of her career in a time of measles outbreak.

"I saw how sad it was to see people get sick just because they weren't able to have immunizations or chose not to be immunized," she said.

All told, roughly 38,000, or 0.75 percent of Texas students, received non-medical exemptions from at least one vaccine during the 2013-2014 school year, the Texas Tribune reported in April. The figure — which includes students at both public and accredited private schools — is still below the national average of 1.8 percent, but has spiked from just under 3,000, or 0.09 percent, in 2004, according to the Tribune.

The anti-vaccination movement is sizable, often fostered by high-profile celebrities promoting the idea that vaccinations cause autism and other maladies. The movement has grown steadily since 1998 when researcher Andrew Wakefield led a study published in the prestigious English medical journal Lancet that claimed a link between the MMR (mumps-measles-rubella) vaccine and autism.

Years after the debunking of that study, and the researcher's fall from grace over questionable methods, the research is still cited as evidence of the perceived dangers of immunizations by members of the anti-vaccination crowd.

In Texas, anti-vaccination parents now have a Political Action Committee (PAC) formed last year to safeguard their decision not to have their children immunized, the Texas Tribune reported earlier this year. The PAC is called Texans For Vaccine Choice, and its Facebook page with more than 6,800 followers is adorned with a slogan with a variation on the state's unofficial motto: "Don't Mess with Texans."

Read the full story at CBS Austin >>

>>> Image via National Institutes of Health