Medical exemptions climb after California tightens school vaccine requirements

More California kindergartners are getting all their required vaccines after a 2015 law banned non-medical vaccine exemptions for kids entering school — but a new analysis published this morning finds implementation hasn’t been without problems. In the 2017-2018 school year, 95 percent of kindergarten students had all required vaccines, up from just under 93 percent in 2015-2016. But the rate of medical exemptions spiked, jumping from 0.2 percent in 2015-2016 to 0.7 percent in 2017-2018. The authors of the study interviewed 40 health and immunization staffers and turned up concerns about clinicians reportedly advertising medical exemptions online for a fee. The takeaway, according to the authors: Without tweaks to the law, medical exemption rates could keep climbing.