SAGINAW, Mich. (WNEM) – New data shows the number of parents opting for vaccine waivers for their children is higher than its been in decades.
All of this comes when measles outbreaks have been happening across the country.
Some counties in the TV5 viewing area have the highest vaccination waiver rates in the state for immunizations that have been required for children for decades.
Before a child can start kindergarten, they are required by Michigan law to receive these vaccines, including two shots for measles, mumps, and rubella, also known as MMR.
“20% of kids with measles actually end up being admitted to the hospital,” said Natasha Bagdasarian, Chief Medical Executive, for the State of Michigan, and an infectious disease doctor and epidemiologist.
Two shots for varicella, also called chickenpox, and the polio vaccine are also required.
“If there is an outbreak of chicken pox in the school, and children are not vaccinated, they are excluded from school until 21 days after the last case. So it can be way more than 21 days if there are a number of cases. Excluding kids from school is not a good thing, but unfortunately, that is the way we control an outbreak when we have a population that is not vaccinated,” said Catherine Bodnar, Medical Director for the Midland County Department of Public Health. “To know that vaccines can be preventive, it is just so powerful, and we don’t see diseases like polio anymore, which, when i was a child, was very common because of vaccines.”
By the time a student reaches the seventh grade, by law, they are required to get these vaccines.
“They are given at certain ages because we know that’s when you amount the best immune response and we have the greatest chance at protecting you against these diseases,” said Bagdasarian.
But parents don’t have to get their child vaccinated if they get a waiver.
“The wavier rules in Michigan are very lenient,” Bagdasarian said. “So people can get waivers for medical reasons, for religious reasons or for personal/philosophical reasons.”
Waivers are available through your local health department.
From 2015 to 2020, waiver rates were around 3%.
In 2021, they jumped to just over 4% and have been increasing ever since.
For the 2024 to 2025 school year, the waiver rate hit 6.2%, the highest since 2013.
“The non-medical waiver is typically for personal preference reasons, and that is what we see increasing,” Bodnar said.
“You know I think everyone has the right to make their own health decisions and decisions for their family, but what i am worried about is that folks aren’t getting the best information in order to make these decisions and our job is to make sure people are armed with the best information possibly so they can make the right decisions for themselves and their families,” said Bagdasarian.
TV5 broke down data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
The blue line shows waiver rates for 2023, and the orange is 2025. For most counties in mid-Michigan, there has been an increase in waivers over the last few years.
Lapeer County has the highest percentage with just over 14%, followed by Huron County with about 11%.
“One of the things we sometimes deal with in public health is we are so successful in eliminating certain diseases that people don’t see them anymore and they don’t really remember how terrible these diseases were,” Bagdasarian said.
“But with vaccination we eliminated measles, and unfortunately, this year, we are seeing way more measles than we’ve seen in a couple of decades,” said Bodnar.
In Michigan this year, there have been more than 25 measles cases reported.
“I anticipate that things will continue on this way so long as those vaccination rates remain low,” Bagdasarian said. “Measles is one of the most transmissible diseases that we have in the world. It is so transmissible that you can contract measles if someone has been in a room two hours before you with measles and then left.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said if 95% of a community has been vaccinated for MMR, they’re considered to have herd immunity.
“We know a single dose of the vaccine gives you 93% immunity and two doses of the vaccine gives you 97% immunity. That doesn’t mean that this vaccine will just prevent the severe cases. That means that 97% of the time it will prevent all cases of measles,” Bagdasarian said.
More data from MDHHS shows not one county in the TV5 viewing area, or even the state, has hit at least 95% of 13 to 17-year-olds with their MMR vaccinations.
In mid-Michigan, Arenac and Gratiot counties are the closest, with both around 91%.
“In addition to protecting our children, we’re protecting the rest of our community because some people aren’t able to get vaccinated either because they’re not old enough yet, or they may have some medical conditions, so it really protects everybody,” said Bodnar.
If you have questions about vaccines, both doctors recommend talking to your health care provider.
“I make sure my own family is immunized and I have no financial incentives for people to get vaccinated,” Bagdasarian said. “I have no ties with any pharmaceutical companies, the majority of doctors that I speak with, we are talking about vaccines, not because of any financial ties, but because this is a tool that is life saving, and we have seen what can happen when these tools aren’t used.”
All U.S. states currently have vaccination requirements to attend schools, but their exceptions vary.
Florida is the only state that is planning to end all mandates for school vaccinations.
TV5 reached out to Michigan for Vaccine Choice. They declined an interview, but said in a statement:
“Vaccination rates have “dropped” since Covid-19. There are many reasons for this drop, among them, that the Covid-19 vaccine does not prevent infection or transmission of infection, while carrying a risk of injury and death. We believe that parents started questioning “safe and effective” after it became apparent that the Covid-19 vaccine was not helping keep kids healthy. Parents have also questioned attenuated vaccines (live) use aborted fetal cell lines, which has probably increased the number of religious exemptions. Additionally, many of the vaccines have animal DNA (monkey, bovine, porcine, chicken, hamster, etc.) and people who are vegan are more likely to get a philosophical exemption.
While national exemption rates have “reached an all time high”, they remain below 5%. Here in Michigan, the data for vaccines waived by parents went up by .3% in the past year. Waiver rates rise and fall with the number of kids enrolling for the first time in Kindergarten, switching schools or entering 7th grade. You can find the data here. Every year we answer the same old questions from media about the same issues at the same time of the year. It would be refreshing if any of you actually looked at WHY trust in public health is at an all-time low. Public health is focused on increasing vaccination uptake (google Bob Swanson, MDHHS), glossing over safety and efficacy as if these are not important factors to get vaccinated. If vaccines don’t prevent infection or transmission of infecting in children, then why would the risk be worth it? “Public Health Experts” will repeat the messaging that “vaccine preventable diseases will make a comeback”.
If you check out our website, you will find more information on the clarification of Michigan law protecting the universal right to have a child exempted from vaccination with a written statement from the parent to the school vs. MDHHS’s rule for “waiver” , which tries to force parents to undergo additional steps, instructing schools to violate the law, refusing to recognize parents written exemption. It would be great if the MSM actually talked about how MDHHS is violating privacy laws, by failing to inform parents about MCIR, and their right to opt-out of MCIR at every appointment (doctor, LHD or pharmacy) that discusses vaccination.”
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