There are many red dots on the map of Oregon K-12schools and their vaccination rates. The red dots show that fewer than 80% of children in a school have received all of their required vaccinations. Oregon Health Authority recently noted that non-medical exemptions from vaccines among kindergarteners in the state are at a record high.
So who gets to claim non-medical exemptions, and for how long? We get a refresher course on why people request exemptions from vaccinations, and the resulting effects on public health, in a chat with Stacy Matthews, immunization school law coordinator at OHA, and Dr. Paul Cieslak, Medical Director of Communicable Diseases & Immunizations.