“There’s been a decrease in immunization rates in all vaccines. There’s a decrease in immunizations in more than half the states, as opposed to the year before. There are at least 280,000 kindergarteners who did not get the [measles, mumps and rubella vaccine],” said Dr Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the division of infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (Chop).

Additionally, non-medical exemptions for vaccines for kindergarteners grew by 17% over the last school year – the highest single-year increase ever, from 3.6% to 4.2% nationwide.