HOLLAND, Mich. — Students across Michigan are required to receive vaccines such as the DTP or DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis), MMR, Hepatitis B, and varicella (chicken pox) to attend school. Parents can obtain waivers to opt out of these requirements, and data indicates an increase in waiver requests since 2020, both statewide and in Ottawa County.
Health experts suggest a 95% vaccination rate is ideal for community immunity, reducing the spread of diseases. Michigan's coverage is at 89%, with Ottawa County slightly higher at 93%.
"In purely scientific terms, yes, the less immunity there is in a community, the more I get worried about the spread of communicable diseases, infections, especially the ones that we know," said Dr. Gwen Unzicker, Medical Director of Ottawa County Public Health on Tuesday.
Worrisome, as she said vaccination waiver rates have also increased the past several years.
"The waivers that we typically are talking about when we have these types of conversations is what's called a non-medical waiver, and that can be for a couple of reasons. It can be they either consider a religious exemption or philosophical exemption," said Unzicker. "The trend has been going up over the last, like 17 or so years, and then especially over the last five years or so is when we've really seen that rate start to go higher."
In 2020, 3.4% of Michigan children had a waiver for at least one vaccine; by 2022, it rose to 4.8%. In 2023, the MMR waiver rate reached 5.7% statewide, with Ottawa County at 5%, up from 3.9% in 2020.
Unzicker said those who apply for a vaccination waiver are required by law to attend an educational session at a health department.
"To learn about risks and benefits of the vaccines, as well as the risks of not having the vaccine, and what that might mean if they were to be exposed to one of those vaccine preventable diseases," said Unzicker. "If you choose not to have this vaccine, there are other responsibilities that come with that in terms of helping to protect yourself and those around you in the event that one of these diseases is in the community."
She said the goal of the department is to simply make sure everyone in the community is safe and healthy.
"We want to give people the information that they need to make their own decisions, and we're not here to judge. We're not here to convince or change people's deeply held beliefs. We are here to provide the resources that they need to make those healthy choices for themselves and their communities," Unzicker said.
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