Tony Leys

tleys@dmreg.com

The number of Iowa parents seeking religious exemptions to vaccination requirements continues to climb, despite efforts to dispel worries the shots cause health problems.

A new state report shows 6,737 Iowa school children obtained religious exemptions to vaccinations this school year, up 13 percent from the year before and more than four times the number 15 years ago.

“It’s not the trend we want to be seeing,” said Don Callaghan, who oversees immunization programs for the Iowa Department of Public Health.

Callaghan predicted the state will face more pressure to tighten restrictions on vaccination exemptions if the numbers keep rising.

Iowa doesn’t require parents to cite specific religious teachings against vaccination in order to obtain an exemption. The state only requires them to sign a statement claiming immunization “conflicts with a genuine and sincere religious belief.”

EDITORIAL:State should stop misuse of vaccine exemption

Public health officials say they’re unaware of any major religion that teaches vaccinations are wrong.

The statewide increase in religious exemptions this school year was not as large as Polk County’s 33 percent jump, which the county reported earlier this spring. But Callaghan had hoped to see a decrease, especially in light of a highly publicized outbreak of measles in California two years ago. That outbreak, linked to Disneyland, took hold among unvaccinated children.

Callaghan speculated the exemption increase is fueled by families who don’t realize how dangerous such diseases can be, because vaccines have kept once-common illnesses at bay. “For lack of better words, it’s ‘Out of sight, out of mind,’” he said.

DATABASE:School vaccination rates

About 1.3 percent of Iowa school children now have religious exemptions to vaccination, compared to a national average of 1.5 percent, Callaghan said. Another 0.4 percent of Iowa school children have medical exemptions to vaccination. Those require a health care provider to confirm a child can’t receive shots because of an allergy or other problem.

After Polk County reported its large rise in religious exemptions, Des Moines mom Tamara Bridgeman explained her thinking on why she feels such exemptions are justified for her two children. She said vaccine manufacturers aren't disclosing everything that's in the shots. “My belief is, I don’t trust the pharmaceutical companies,” she said. “I feel like I shouldn’t have to have a religion to believe in something.”

Linn County Health Director Pramod Dwivedi said he believes many of the families who seek religious exemptions are afraid vaccinations cause autism, even though multiple studies have shown the fears are unfounded. Autism Speaks, a leading national organization for families of people with autism, agrees that there is no apparent link.

In Linn County, the number of religious exemptions to vaccination climbed 19 percent this school year, to 744.

DATABASE:Iowa vaccination exemptions by county

Unlike some states, Iowa doesn’t allow parents to seek exemptions based on “philosophical” objections. Iowa law requires parents to cite religious tenets in order to obtain a religious exemption, but state health administrators dropped that requirement in 2003, after a federal judge ruled in another state that government officials could not force citizens to provide such details. The number of religious exemptions in Iowa has more than quadrupled since then.

Dwivedi wants Iowa to join California, Mississippi and West Virginia in disallowing religious and philosophical exemptions to vaccination. “I think that would be a smart move. Iowa, as a progressive state, should do that,” he said.

An Iowa Poll published by the Des Moines Register in 2015 found 59 percent of Iowa adults favored allowing vaccination exemptions only for medical reasons.

The state did add language to the religious exemption form this school year, requiring parents to more explicitly acknowledge the health risks that declining vaccines can pose to their children and the children around them. But Callaghan said it could take years for the new language to have much effect, because Iowa doesn’t require parents to renew their children’s exemptions annually.

More Polk County families seek vaccination exemptions

Another change proposed by some public health experts would be to require parents who want religious exemptions to talk to a doctor or other health-care provider first about the risks of skipping vaccines. The doctors wouldn’t have to agree with the parents’ decision, but simply discuss it with them.

The vaccination statistics come from annual audits required at every school. Some of the results could be due to record-keeping flaws. For example, Emmetsburg High School is listed by the state as having only 73 percent of its students fully vaccinated, but school nurse Cheri Hinners said this week that the total actually is much higher. Hinners was mystified why her high school was listed more than 20 points lower than most other Iowa schools. Then she looked at the school’s audit report and noticed it said none of the 61 seniors were fully vaccinated, compared to nearly all of the students in lower grades. That can’t be right, and it should be corrected, she said.

Hinners added that she has seen more families choosing religious exemptions over the years. She also has seen students coming from other states with less-stringent vaccination requirements, who sometimes take time to get up to date on their shots. But Emmetsburg High School’s problem is not as serious as the new state report suggests, she said.