Nicolai Haugsted
America’s vaccination problem worsens as measles reaches 35-year high.
Childhood vaccination coverage across the United States has slipped further, extending a decline that public health experts warn is leaving growing pockets of children vulnerable to preventable diseases.
New figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show vaccination rates among kindergarten students fell again during the 2025-2026 school year. The decline was relatively small nationally, but it comes as the country records its highest number of measles cases in more than three decades.
According to Reuters, CDC data show 92.4 percent of kindergarteners were covered by the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, commonly known as MMR. Polio coverage stood at the same level, while 92 percent had received the required protection against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis.
Vaccination coverage has now declined during almost every school year since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than half of US states recorded lower coverage for MMR, polio, DTaP and chickenpox vaccines compared with the previous school year.
John Grabenstein, a pharmacist who previously oversaw Department of Defense vaccination programs, said the latest figures continue a worrying pattern.
“It’s continuing a long trend in the wrong direction,” Grabenstein said.
Exemptions are simultaneously becoming more common. During the latest school year, 4.2 percent of kindergarteners had exemptions from at least one vaccine, up from 3.6 percent a year earlier.
Rates increased across 41 states and Washington, D.C., while 24 states reported exemption levels above five percent.
Hundreds of thousands lack documented MMR protection
Roughly 280,000 kindergarten students attended school without documentation showing that they had completed the MMR vaccination series, according to the CDC.
Public health officials pay particular attention to measles coverage because the virus is exceptionally contagious. The CDC estimates that at least 95 percent of a population needs two doses of measles vaccine to help prevent outbreaks and protect communities.
National coverage among kindergarteners is now below that threshold.
Jen Kates, senior vice president at health policy organization KFF, said the national average also masks substantial differences between individual communities. Areas with particularly low vaccination rates can create conditions for outbreaks that subsequently have consequences beyond their immediate surroundings.
“That’s why we’re seeing the greatest measles outbreak in the United States that we’ve seen in decades,” Kates said.
Measles infections surge
The United States has recorded 2,566 confirmed measles infections so far this year, according to the figures cited by Reuters. No year in more than 35 years has produced a higher total.
States differ considerably in their vaccination coverage.
West Virginia, Connecticut, Maine, New York and Mississippi reported the highest MMR rates, while Idaho, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Utah and Arizona recorded the lowest.
Texas maintained an MMR vaccination rate of 93.2 percent after experiencing a serious measles outbreak last year. California remained considerably higher at 95.7 percent, although its rate fell by 0.4 percentage points, its largest annual decline since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Latest figures also provide the first national snapshot of kindergarten vaccination coverage since Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has a long history of vaccine skepticism, became US health secretary.
President Donald Trump last week signed an executive order seeking changes to childhood vaccination policy. The order calls for limiting the childhood schedule to 11 immunizations and recommends administering the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines separately rather than through the combined MMR shot.
Grabenstein warned that continued declines could translate into further growth in measles infections.
“It’s not like a tipping point,” he said. “If trends hold, we’ll have twice as many measles cases this year as we did the previous year. It’s just going to keep getting worse.”
