Parents are increasingly putting their children in danger in Ohio schools.
According to the Ohio Department of Health, about 1 in 7 Ohio five-year-olds entered Kindergarten this year unvaccinated. This is up from about 1 in 10 in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
One in ten is not a great baseline. According to the World Health Organization, that number needs to be closer to 1 in 20 for “herd immunity” to stop measles from spreading. This is certainly part of the reason Ohio has seen 35 measles cases this year.
The speed vaccination rates are falling in Ohio puts children at risk for even more diseases, though. If Ohio creeps closer to 1 in 5 children unvaccinated, children will approach the point where they are no longer herd immune to polio.
What can we do about this?
Certainly we are living in an age of misinformation where trust in institutions like the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and even the Ohio Department of Health have declined.
This has led to parents making decisions that the best medical science tells us is putting their children at risk for lifelong conditions or even death.
Are there public policy solutions to this problem?
If policymakers are interested in improving vaccination rates and saving lives in the progress, they have options.
First, they can tighten nonmedical exemptions.
A parent who leaves a gun unattended or a toddler next to a swimming pool in Ohio can be found negligent for endangering their child.
A parent who refuses to put their child in a car seat or leaves their child in a hot car can be found negligent for endangering their child.
But if a parent refuses to vaccinate their child, exposing them to life-threatening illnesses, they are protected by current Ohio law.
Eliminating “reasons of conscience” that allow parents to opt out of vaccination requirements for whatever reason they see fit can help protect children and their peers.
If policymakers are too squeamish to protect children in this way, they can instead help educate parents by requiring in-person vaccine education sessions, which has had some positive effect in helping parents make better decisions for their children in Michigan.
Second, the state can use its immunization information system to improve compliance with vaccination requirements.
The state has a database that tracks immunizations across the state. The state can use this system to send auto-reminders like text messages, phone calls, or letters to families who are not up to date.
The state can then publish schools that have low compliance rates by the Oct. 15 deadline so the public knows which schools are struggling to keep their children safe.
These are just two examples of what the state can do to increase immunization rates and protect children from lifechanging illnesses like measles and polio.
Ohio has made so much progress in eradicating deadly diseases and immunization is a huge piece of the puzzle for how this has come to be.
If policymakers can find ways to protect more children, they should do it.
This commentary first appeared in the Ohio Capital Journal.