You have probably heard that cases of measles have been popping up around the country, but you may not be aware of recent outbreaks up and down our state of California.
You may have heard that Santa Barbara has made great strides to improve vaccine levels within our local schools, but you may not know that we still have some vulnerable campuses with dangerously low immunity levels.
You may also know someone who has had all of their vaccines but still has contracted a vaccine-preventable disease.
All of these facts are related. We have made some progress, but we still need everyone’s help to build and maintain our community’s immunity.
What Is “Community” or “Herd” Immunity?
Not every person can be vaccinated, perhaps because of an underlying medical condition or maybe they are too young to receive their vaccines. Not everyone who gets their shots will develop a full immune response. As a result, communities like ours rely on what is called “community” or “herd” immunity.
Studies show that when 95 percent of the population is immunized, we have just enough “community immunity” to greatly reduce the chances of deadly vaccine-preventable diseases spreading to those who are vulnerable.
What Happens When We Fall Below 95 Percent?
When more than 5 percent of the population is not immunized (or when there is a cluster of unvaccinated individuals), we weaken our community immunity and we become susceptible to the introduction and spread of vaccine-preventable diseases.
This is when we put friends, family and neighbors with compromised immune systems, cancer, organ transplants, infants and other medically fragile individuals at risk. This is also when we start to see vaccinated individuals, who did not get a great response from their vaccines, contract these diseases and spread them to others.
What’s Going On With Our Schools?
Thanks to a strong community coalition called Strive for 95 and California Senate Bill 277, Santa Barbara schools have made significant strides in recent years to improve campus vaccine rates higher than 95 percent.
The State of California published data from 2017-18 showing that the incoming kindergarten classes in Santa Barbara County had an impressive 96.5 percent vaccine rate. This is up significantly from 92.1 percent in 2012-13. We should be very proud of this accomplishment!
While our overall rates are high, a review of the 2017-18 ShotsForSchool.org data also show clusters of kindergarten classes with levels as low as 68 percent locally. Should measles reach one of these classrooms, there is a high likelihood that many of these students will contract the disease and potentially establish a measles outbreak in Santa Barbara.
Why Do Some Parents Opt Out of Vaccines?
In the late 1990s, a falsified paper was published that attempted to link the MMR vaccine to an increasing rate of autism. As a result, some parents decided to delay or not vaccinate their children and instead rely on high rates of community immunity to protect their children.
Despite numerous studies showing no link between vaccines and autism and an admission that the paper’s author had falsified information, an anti-vaccine movement was born and communities across the country have been experiencing a resurgence in vaccine-preventable diseases.
We now know that there is no link between vaccines and autism, so why do some parents still opt out of vaccines? This is a complex question, but here are some of the more common responses that we hear from parents:
“Vaccines aren’t needed anymore.” False. Whooping cough and measles are making a comeback in our state (and polio is a plane ride away).
“Vaccines can cause developmental delays.” False. Nothing in my field has been studied more than vaccine safety during the past 20 years. There is no link between vaccines and developmental delays.
“My baby will be protected by high rates of vaccination already in the community.” Maybe. While our local numbers are encouraging, we must continue to be vigilant about staying up to date on vaccines so that we can continue to enjoy the peace of mind of having strong community immunity rates.
Strive for 95
Our goal should be to build and maintain our community immunity at higher than 95 percent. The vast majority of parents are excited to help their children build strong immune systems through vaccination, but they have not historically been the ones talking about the importance of vaccines to their friends.
Doctors need to keep talking to their patients, but ultimately parents need to continue to be proactive and help convince other parents about the importance of keeping our community immunity strong. I’ve been in parent support groups where one parent has convinced a whole group of new parents to question the need for vaccines. We want parents to feel empowered and speak up at their support groups, on the playgrounds, at their health food stores and through social media about the importance of vaccines.
What Else Can We Do?
Right now we need to focus on building our community immunity one school at a time and strive to get all campus levels above 95 percent. This has to happen if we want to have a fighting chance to keep vaccine preventable disease out of our community. It takes effort to explain the concept of community immunity and to help parents realize that opting out of immunizing puts their own kids and so many others at risk.
We all have a responsibility to do what is right for our own kids and families, but we are part of one community and we also share an obligation to do what is right for the health of our community. We wish for parents who are not immunizing to understand that they are not only putting their own kids at risk, but by weakening our community immunity they are putting our entire community’s health at risk.
Please help us Strive for 95 and continue to build maximum immunity in our community.
Click here for more information about Strive for 95 and the importance of community immunity. Click here to learn more about your neighborhood school’s community immunity levels.
— Dr. Dan Brennan is a board-certified pediatrician at Sansum Clinic, proud husband and father of three fully immunized boys. He can be contacted at drb@sbpediatrics.com or 805.563.6211, or click here for more information about Santa Barbara Pediatrics. The opinions expressed are his own.
