Children attending more than 200 Georgia schools are in classrooms where vaccination rates fall short of the level needed to protect them from catching and spreading a variety of diseases, according to an analysis of state data by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
But when data show high rates of students who are not fully vaccinated or of parents opting their children out of vaccinations, the Georgia Department of Public Health doesn’t take key steps that could prevent outbreaks, the AJC found.
Health experts say that school vaccination rates below about 90 percent can leave a community vulnerable to outbreaks by eroding “herd immunity,” the concept that the more people who are immune, the harder it is for the disease to spread.
Unvaccinated children aren’t the only ones at risk, experts say. So, too, are others who come into contact with students — like infants or grandparents. Even vaccinated children can become ill since some vaccines don’t always fully protect against disease.
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