Georgia’s childhood vaccination rates have dropped. Doctors are worried.

Physicians are concerned about the decline in vaccines that protect against preventable diseases like measles, which was eradicated in the U.S. in 2000. However, there have been more than 1,000 measles cases in the U.S. so far in 2025. Georgia has had six measles cases this year.

Meanwhile, exemption rates are on the rise, from 2.5% of Georgia kindergartners in 2019-20 to 3.6% in 2023-24. Georgia requires several vaccines before students can enroll in school or child care, including MMR, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis and polio. Students can receive exemptions for medical or religious reasons.

Although vaccine skepticism existed well before the COVID-19 pandemic, some physicians have noticed an increase in reluctance to vaccinate their children in the last few years. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic, recently told CBS News that measles outbreaks are inevitable.

“We’re always going to have measles, no matter what happens, as the vaccine wanes very quickly,” Kennedy said.

Physicians disagree.

“The adverse events from a vaccine are so very minimal compared to the devastating effect from the disease,” said Dr. Nicola Chin, a pediatrician at Morehouse Healthcare. Chin spent part of a recent morning trying to persuade three parents to inoculate their children. Only one agreed to the DTaP vaccine, since rates of pertussis are on the rise in Georgia.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

“We are seeing a lot more distrust, and that has escalated past COVID into now, and it was present before,” Chin said.

Chin, the president of the Georgia chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said physicians are spending more time combating misinformation patients find online.

“(Patients say,) ‘That vaccine has poison in it. I’ve seen on TikTok that kids will die (from the) vaccine,’” Chin said. “Pediatricians across the state have to address (these kinds of comments) and be able to restore trust.”

Restoring trust can be challenging, as Chin has found, in a splintered media landscape where misinformation and disinformation are rampant. She’s also concerned about households where older children have been vaccinated, but younger siblings have not been because of growing distrust among some parents.

Dr. Felipe Lobelo, a medical epidemiologist and a program director at Kaiser Permanente of Georgia, said in addition to skepticism, people became wary after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“People are tired of hearing about vaccines,” he said. The pandemic sort of created … a legacy of increased mistrust and some disinformation.”

But, Lobelo said, it’s important to understand that not all diseases are equal.

“COVID is better controlled now than it was five years ago, and vaccination ... is still important, but it’s not as critical as it was back in 2019. But you cannot say the same thing for measles,” he said. “Immune systems that have not been exposed to measles — one of the most infectious diseases we have ever known — are going to get infected if they’re not properly vaccinated.”

While deaths from measles are rare, the disease is highly contagious and can lead to other conditions like pneumonia, encephalitis. In recent years scientists have also discovered that measles can break down the immune system generally, making children unable to fight off a wide array of diseases they used to be protected against.

Lobelo said the decline in childhood inoculations is an “all hands on deck” situation for physicians and educators.

“I encourage families to find other trusted sources of information … so that people can make informed decisions,” he said. “Ultimately, we cannot force anyone to take vaccines, but people need to make informed choices of the risks that they take if they don’t get vaccinated.”

Which vaccines do Georgia schools require?

Children enrolled in any Georgia public school, child care center or Head Start program need to complete the Georgia Certificate of Immunization. Young children are required to get specific doses of immunizations, including MMR, polio and DTaP.

Students entering seventh grade are also required to get the meningococcal conjugate vaccine. Students entering 11th grade will need a meningococcal booster shot unless they received their first dose on or after their 16th birthday.

Some school districts, like Fulton County, have grace periods for students who enroll without all of the required vaccines.

“We don’t want the lack of documents to prevent a kid from being in the classroom,” Fulton Superintendent Mike Looney said.

Looney said the district dis-enrolls some students who aren’t up to date on vaccines, “But I would say those are few and far between.”

Read more about Georgia’s school vaccine requirements.