New vaccine law already showing signs of success in Reed district, Marin
Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the March 9, 2016, edition of The Ark. It earned first place for Best Education/Literacy Story and second place for Best Health Story in the National Newspaper Association’s 2017 Better Newspapers Contest.
By KEVIN HESSEL and CARLY NAIRN
editor@thearknewspaper.com
The Reed Union School District is making strong progress toward a statewide goal of eliminating personal-belief and religious exemptions for student immunizations, with an exemption rate of 5 percent for incoming kindergartners for 2015–2016. While that’s better than the 7.5-percent rate last year and 5.9 percent Marin-wide, the statewide rate is still a low 2.4 percent.
According to the California Department of Public Health, some 111 of 120 Reed Elementary School students entering kindergarten, or 93 percent, were considered to be adequately vaccinated for measles, mumps, rubella, pertussis, hepatitis, polio and chicken pox — a figure that includes exemptions for both personal beliefs and for medical reasons. That rate’s improved considerably from 2014–2015, when just 81 percent, or 119 of 147 incoming Reed Elementary students, were adequately vaccinated, according to data from the California Department of Public Health.
Only six of incoming Reed Elementary kindergartners were exempted for personal or religious reasons this year versus 11 last year.
The news comes after the highly publicized debate around Senate Bill 277, which was signed last June by Gov. Jerry Brown and requires that only children with documented medical conditions that make it unsafe for them to receive vaccines can be exempted at public and private schools.
However, the meat of the new law won’t start phasing in until this July, ahead of the 2016–2017 school year, so rates are expected to improve even further.
“Rising vaccination rates is welcome news,” says Reed district parent Carl Krawitt, who with his son, Rhett, helped spark national headlines and a statewide public-health debate. “We all live our lives hoping we may make a meaningful difference in the lives of others, and we are proud of the role our family played in the vaccine debate.”
Just more than a year ago, in the wake of the Disneyland measles outbreak of December 2014, the Krawitts made their plea to abolish personal-belief exemptions because then-first-grader Rhett is recovering from leukemia and has a compromised immune system, requiring a medical exemption. He needs every healthy classmate around him to be vaccinated to help prevent possible infection, through what’s called “herd immunity.”
The Krawitts became advocates for the proposed law co-written by pediatrician and state Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, who appeared with them at a February 2015 Reed district board meeting at which school board members endorsed the bill.
“This is unprecedented in California, to have legislation passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and in such a short period of time after a public health and media event,” Carl Krawitt said. “It is proof that we in Tiburon can act at a local level on issues that have impact on a state, national and global level.
“We can do it with gun control, with global warming, with improving school buses (across the county) — I think it’s telling about Tiburon’s leadership position,” he added later.
Reed district Superintendent Nancy Lynch also received the news of decreased exemption rates as a positive push forward for the district. She said during her tenure as superintendent at Solana Beach School District, the community was adamant to increase vaccination rates.
She said she brings that mindset to the Reed district.
At Del Mar Middle School, some 177 of 179, or 99 percent, of students entering seventh-grade were adequately vaccinated, with both of the remaining two students having personal-belief exemptions. That’s compared with 155 of 160, or 97 percent, of students being adequately vaccinated for 2014–2015, again with all five obtaining personal exemptions.
Overall, some 24 out of 447 grade K-2 students, or 5.4 percent, had a personal-belief exemption at Reed Elementary, according to district nurse Laurel Johnson, with 25 of 555 grade 3–5 students, or 4.5 percent, at Bel Aire Elementary School, and 25 of 544 of grade 6–8 students, or 4.6 percent, at Del Mar. At 74 of 1,546 students, the overall rate of students with personal-belief exemptions is 4.8 percent.
Such exemptions grew dramatically after a 1998 report in the Lancet medical journal that there might be a connection between vaccines and autism — a report later found to be fraudulent and that was retracted in 2010, with the lead researcher barred from practicing medicine.
But the exemptions went on to peak in Marin at 7.8 percent in 2012–2013 and in California at 3.15 percent the following year, prompting Assembly Bill 2109, which required that parents filing a personal-belief exemption also receive information from a health-care provider about immunizations and the health risks to the student and community of the diseases for which immunization is required.
While Marin’s exemption rate has now dropped from the highest in the state to №18, it still has the highest rate of the nine Bay Area counties.
The new law banned all new requests for personal-belief exemptions as of Jan. 1. After July 1, ahead of next school year, all public and private school children entering day care, kindergarten and seventh grade, or who are entering a California school or day care for the first time from out of state, will have to be vaccinated. However, those in grades 1–6 who already had a personal-belief exemption on file before the law went into effect will be able to wait until seventh grade before vaccinations are mandatory, while those in eighth-grade and beyond will remain exempt.
Medical exemptions, such as Rhett Krawitt’s, will remain intact.
In Marin, some 88.5 percent of all incoming kindergartners are adequately immunized, and 5.9 percent have personal-belief exemptions, compared with 84.2 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively, last year.
Statewide, the immunization rate for incoming kindergartners is 92.8 percent, with 2 percent obtaining personal-belief exemptions.
Also on the peninsula, St. Hilary School’s immunization rate for incoming kindergartners was 97 percent with no personal-belief exemptions, and Strawberry Point Elementary School’s immunization rate was 94 percent, with a 4.9 percent personal-belief exemption rate.
Danielle Hiser, the senior public-health nurse with the Marin Department Health and Human Services, said that the changing tide in exemption rates is due to increased awareness on both sides of the debate.
She said that the department conducted a survey of Marin kindergarten parents in 2013 about vaccine decision-making beliefs, and is conducting a follow-up survey this year.
“In the past it seemed that the loudest voices in the immunization conversation were of people who were vaccine-hesitant, while the vast majority of parents who choose to vaccinate their children were quiet,” she said. “Since the measles outbreak last year, we have heard parents who choose to vaccinate speak out more about their decision to protect their children and community, and we have also begun to hear the voice of people who cannot be vaccinated talk about their right to be protected against these diseases. We are hearing more voices talk about that by vaccinating we not only protect ourselves, but also we protect our classmates, friends and neighbors.”
For the Krawitt family, the future looks bright as well. In early February, the family marked two years since the end of Rhett’s treatment.
The fight for mandatory vaccinations was a brief detour from their primary goal of raising awareness, and money, as longtime advocates for cancer research.
On Feb. 26, Rhett got a tour of Air Force Two at San Francisco International Airport when Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, were in the city for a cancer roundtable at the University of California at San Francisco the next day; Biden, whose son Beau died of brain cancer last year, is leading the $1 billion national “moonshot” initiative to eliminate cancer.
Rhett, who says he likes learning about the presidents because “they help make the U.S. fair,” still hopes to one day ride on Air Force One.
Now 8, he remains in full remission and, according to Carl, the risk of recurrence is lower every day.
“He’s enjoying being a regular kid, and like all of us, Rhett has good days and not-so-good days,” Carl said. “For Rhett, there’s really no such thing as a bad day. For 3½ years, he battled cancer, and he’s still winning.”
Kevin Hessel is The Ark’s executive editor. Reach him at 415–435–2652, on Twitter at @thearknewspaper and on Facebook at fb.me/thearknewspaper. Carly Nairn contributed to this report.
