- 60%
- 80%
- 92%
San Francisco Bay Area
In Marin County, exemption rates are nearly three times the state level, but that trend appears to be reversing, in part because of the whooping cough outbreak in 2010, according to Matthew Willis, the county public health officer. Statewide, Asians tend to be well immunized, but in San Francisco, mostly Asian pockets have low vaccination rates.
Santa Cruz
In five schools in Watsonville, a mostly Hispanic town, 100 percent of kindergarteners have been vaccinated for measles. But in the valley, where parents are older and wealthier, at least 20 percent of kindergarteners in 10 schools have opted out. Some parents seek care outside the traditional forms of medicine, Lisa Hernandez, the county health officer, said.
Sacramento
A small cluster of schools northeast of Sacramento have some of the county’s lowest immunization rates. In one charter school, more than half of its 160 kindergarteners are missing the measles vaccines. “People have been lulled into a false sense of security, because they’re not hearing reports of these diseases,” Kate McAuley, the county immunization coordinator, said.
Los Angeles
Vaccination rates are low in wealthy, predominantly white neighborhoods, as well as in neighboring Hispanic towns. At Westside Waldorf School, a private school in Pacific Palisades, 16 of the 20 kindergarteners have personal-belief exemptions. In many other schools, the low vaccination rates are not necessarily caused by parents’ opting out; children can be conditionally admitted while they catch up on immunizations.
Orange County
The mostly white and affluent towns in South Orange County have low vaccination rates. Some parents have said in surveys that they don’t perceive the diseases to be a risk in their community, according to David Nunez, the county medical director for family health.
- Show measles-
vaccination rates - Show personal-
belief exemptions
- 60%
- 80%
- 92%
- 5%
- 10%
- 20%