is important, she says. Smith says the root of vaccine skepticism stems from a single study that has since been discredited. In 1998, Andrew Wakefield, an English doctor, produced a paper that alleged a connection between vaccines and autism. The paper has since been disproved and retracted. “The other thing that happened around the same
The statewide vaccination rate for entering kindergarteners is 94%. North Bay numbers range from 93.5 to 98%.
time was that autism was being recognized much more broadly,” says Smith. “The symptoms of autism do tend to appear around the age of 2, the same age that we require kids to get vaccines.” Stresses Smith: “That’s not a cause, just two things that happen at the same time.”
“Since the 2019-2020 school year, we have had a rate over 90%,” Wu says. “That has really helped with ensuring that our community is well-protected, especially in school settings. It’s easy for disease to spread in a congregate setting like a school.” Marin County’s lowest rate of vaccination was in 2012, according to Santora. Then, in 2014, there was a statewide measles outbreak that started in Disneyland and spread throughout the state, including Marin County. “Our health department developed a vaccine working group community-wide and did outreach to stakeholders including parents. Due to those efforts, combined with state law shifting, now more than 95% of our kiddos are vaccinated,” Santora says. In Marin County, 96.5% of all kindergartners were vaccinated with all required vaccines for school enrollment for the 2023-2024 school year. In an example of the effectiveness of vaccination, “We have not seen a measles outbreak in our community since then,” Santora says. Measles is highly infectious and can cause serious health complications, especially in children younger than 5, according to the CDC. While vaccination rates are looking good for all three counties, “there’s always a caveat,” Smith says. There are geographic pockets with lower rates, Smith points out. In Sonoma County, these tend to be in the west areas of the county and a few areas north of Petaluma, she says. “Low levels tend to cluster geographically and that is what makes the people in those areas vulnerable to infections. While 93.5% is really great for kids to be up to date with all required vaccinations, in those areas with low numbers, you can get transmission,” Smith says. That’s why it’s all the more urgent to have a unified message from health officials at all levels that vaccination
February 2025
NorthBaybiz 45
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