Vaccination Rates in U.S. Hit Record-Breaking Low for Third Year in a Row

The veil has lifted. The vaccine narrative is in shambles.

Aug 04, 2025

Little boy with backpack on left and a vaccine on the right

This article originally appeared on The Defender and was republished with permission.

Guest post by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

In a statement released Thursday on vaccination rates, the CDC said, “The decision to vaccinate is a personal one. Parents should consult their health care providers on options for their families.” The 2024-2025 school year was the third record-breaking year in a row for the exemption rate, according to The Associated Press.

Vaccination rates for U.S. kindergartners decreased last year while the percentage of children granted religious exemptions from school immunization requirements reached a record high, according to data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The rate for the diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccine was 92.1% during the 2024-2025 school year, compared to 92.3% in the 2023-2024 school year. For the 2019-2020 school year, which was pre-COVID-19, it was 94.9%.

For the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and polio vaccines, the rate was 92.5% in 2024-2025, down from 92.7% in 2023-2024 and from 95.2% in 2019-2020.

As vaccination rates have decreased, the percentage of students with nonmedical exemptions — including religious or philosophical exemptions — has increased. The number rose from 3.3% during the 2023-2024 school year to 3.6% in 2024-2025.

According to The Associated Press (AP), the 2024-2025 school year was “the third record-breaking year in a row for the exemption rate.” The percentage of students with medical exemptions has remained around 0.2% in recent years.

In a statement quoted by the AP, the CDC stated:

“The decision to vaccinate is a personal one. Parents should consult their health care providers on options for their families …
“Vaccination remains the most effective way to protect children from serious diseases like measles and whooping cough, which can lead to hospitalization and long-term health complications.”

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Religious exemptions increased in 36 states over the past year

According to the AP, public health officials focus on kindergarten vaccination rates “because schools can be cauldrons for germs and launching pads for community outbreaks.”

Vaccination rates remained high for years due to school immunization mandates, but are influenced by “policies that make it harder or easier to obtain exemptions.”

Only four states — California, Maine, New York and Connecticut — prohibit religious or philosophical exemptions to school vaccine mandates. All other states offer a religious or personal exemption to public school vaccine requirements.

In West Virginia, state law doesn’t acknowledge religious exemptions. However, in January, Gov. Patrick Morrisey issued an executive order that allows parents to request religious exemptions for their children. The order triggered several lawsuits.

According to CDC figures, the percentage of kindergartners with religious exemptions increased in 36 states and the District of Columbia, and exceeds 5% in 17 states, led by Idaho (15.4%), Utah (10.3%), Oregon (9.8%), Alaska (9.4%) and Arizona (9.1%).

The AP attributed rising exemption rates to “local attitudes among families and doctors about the need to get children vaccinated” and online “misinformation and the political divide that emerged around COVID-19 vaccines.”

But according to John Gilmore, executive director of the Autism Action Network:

“Parents are being far more judicious about vaccines now. Everybody knows someone who was injured by the COVID-19 shot. COVID-19 taught everybody that the vaccine industry will blatantly lie to persuade people to use their products, and if they can’t persuade you, they will use coercion.”

Children’s Health Defense is a plaintiff in an antitrust lawsuit against the Trusted News Initiative — a partnership formed by the AP, Reuters, The Washington Post, BBC and other legacy media — alleging it engaged in anticompetitive practices and colluded with tech platforms to censor alternative viewpoints on COVID-19.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement of interest backing the plaintiffs in the case.

Gilmore said the growing popularity of alternative media helps spread information about vaccine risks and exemptions, leading more parents to opt out of vaccinating their children.

“There has also been enormous growth in media that do not accept advertising from the vaccine cartel that will publish vaccine-critical information, unlike the legacy media,” he said.

Gilmore also said the expansion of the childhood immunization schedule — which has added 26 doses since 2015 — has led more parents to question the recommendations.

CDC figures don’t include kids who are unvaccinated because they’re homeschooled

The true percentage of unvaccinated children may be higher than the CDC data shows, in part because of the growing number of homeschooled children in the U.S., Gilmore said.

“These numbers only include a very small portion of homeschoolers who are now, after explosive growth during COVID, about 7% of all school-age children, and credible sources estimate about half of these children are not compliant with the CDC schedule,” he said.

Gilmore also said the influx of undocumented immigrant children in recent years has likely increased the total number of unvaccinated students. He said:

“Beginning in 2021, we saw an influx of more than one million undocumented immigrant children. Many of them had unknown vaccination status. In New York and other states, undocumented immigrant children are allowed to enroll in school regardless of their vaccination status.”

Did lower vaccination rates cause measles outbreak?

The AP reported that the CDC traditionally publishes kindergarten vaccination and vaccine exemption figures alongside a write-up stressing “the importance of vaccinations” and analyzing the past year’s vaccination trends. That write-up was not included this year.

The AP said of the CDC report:

“The wording is more ambivalent about the importance of vaccinations than in the past. That is in keeping with communications from U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a leading voice in the anti-vaccine movement before President Donald Trump put him in charge of federal health agencies.”

According to the AP, the lower vaccination rates for kindergarteners and higher rate of religious exemptions come “as the U.S. experiences its worst year for measles spread in more than three decades, with more than 1,300 cases so far.”

But for research scientist and author James Lyons-Weiler, Ph.D., this narrative is based on “a dangerously outdated and scientifically inaccurate portrayal of measles transmission by framing the unvaccinated as the sole source of outbreaks.”

“Measles outbreaks have occurred in populations with 90-95% coverage repeatedly in recent history, due to clustering, waning immunity and birth cohort dynamics,” Lyons-Weiler said.

“In truth, outbreaks today are complex phenomena, driven by multiple factors — including under-diagnosis, waning immunity and a failure to update the MMR vaccine. Unvaccinated children did not create this problem,” Lyons-Weiler said.

Public support for religious and medical exemptions climbs

A poll of over 1,000 registered voters conducted June 24-25 by John Zogby Strategies showed that 60% of parents with young children supported reviewing the current childhood vaccine schedule.

Findings published last month in JAMA Network Open showed 60% of pregnant women and young mothers are considering delaying or refusing routine vaccinations for their children.

A study funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in the journal Vaccine in February found that 74% of elementary school personnel surveyed in California did not believe their schools had the authority to deny medical exemptions and that a majority opposed COVID-19 mandates.

A survey conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center in January showed public support for religious exemptions has nearly doubled in the last six years.

A July 2024 Gallup poll found that support for mandatory school vaccination has declined in recent years.

These results come amid growing institutional opposition to religious exemptions.

In a policy statement published earlier this week, the American Academy of Pediatrics called for an end to religious and philosophical vaccine exemptions for children attending daycare and school in the U.S.

Last month, NBC News reported that “vaccinations rise when states button up religious loopholes,” citing the examples of California and Maine.

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