Wiki says there were 58k in pa as of 2012. The only state with more is ohio with 59k.
Census bureau says there's over 12 million people in PA. Don't think we can blame the Amish.
You're right. Assuming 100% failure to vax, that's only about five percent of the population. Thus, we are left with the question of who in PA is not getting vaxxed and why. I'm trying to google on my phone, which is a frustrating and ultimately pointless endeavor.
Census bureau says there's over 12 million people in PA. Don't think we can blame the Amish.
You're right. Assuming 100% failure to vax, that's only about five percent of the population. Thus, we are left with the question of who in PA is not getting vaxxed and why. I'm trying to google on my phone, which is a frustrating and ultimately pointless endeavor.
I thought this question was answered several posts ago. PA is the only place that reported all homeschoolers as part of their "kindy population". Oregon included them too, but only those registered for online stuff. I imagine other states would jump right up there with them if they reported homeschoolers and not just traditional kindy kids.
You're right. Assuming 100% failure to vax, that's only about five percent of the population. Thus, we are left with the question of who in PA is not getting vaxxed and why. I'm trying to google on my phone, which is a frustrating and ultimately pointless endeavor.
I thought this question was answered several posts ago. PA is the only place that reported all homeschoolers as part of their "kindy population". Oregon included them too, but only those registered for online stuff. I imagine other states would jump right up there with them if they reported homeschoolers and not just traditional kindy kids.
There is no question that is one, if not the, factor, but I wasn't sure if that was the entire story, and I was hoping to find a nifty all-in-one NPR story that explained everything. Plus, now I want to know what percentage of the population here homeschools.
I thought this question was answered several posts ago. PA is the only place that reported all homeschoolers as part of their "kindy population". Oregon included them too, but only those registered for online stuff. I imagine other states would jump right up there with them if they reported homeschoolers and not just traditional kindy kids.
There is no question that is one, if not the, factor, but I wasn't sure if that was the entire story, and I was hoping to find a nifty all-in-one NPR story that explained everything. Plus, now I want to know what percentage of the population here homeschools.
I found a county-by-county cdc report but not from ALL counties. It seems like they only reported on the biggest ones in each state.
I'm struggling to find an official number, but it looks as though the total number of home-schooled students in PA bounces around the 22,000 mark, and that this is ~3% or less of PA students, and less than 1% of the entire population of the state.
I also found this recent NYT article, which is depressing. Apparently PA used to have pretty strict standards for home-schoolers, but those were just relaxed thanks to intense lobbying. I really can't roll my eyes hard enough at the mom who lets her kid go play Minecraft after ten minutes of work because he was "losing his focus." She says his "brain is so unique." I'm sure.
I think I read that unvaccinated rates based off school statistics for kindergarteners are up in CA partly from the fact that they have a December cutoff, so a lot of 4 year olds are in K.
Cutoff is September 1st in California. There are just a lot of assholes here.
So our local NPR station is airing a program this morning with a vax expert from Princeton. I tweeted at them about why PA's vax rate was low relative to other states. They read my tweet on the air and said in fact that PA's vax rate is quite high - in the mid to high 90s, particular for measles.
So I was called wrong on the radio. LOLOL But now I have questions about the OP.
So our local NPR station is airing a program this morning with a vax expert from Princeton. I tweeted at them about why PA's vax rate was low relative to other states. They read my tweet on the air and said in fact that PA's vax rate is quite high - in the mid to high 90s, particular for measles.
So I was called wrong on the radio. LOLOL But now I have questions about the OP.
I was wondering if we were still wondering about PA having a low vaccination rate.
That is awesome that you tested our discussion on NPR! So it's good that the lowest vaccination rate, as reported by the OP, was actually wrong! We have way higher vax rates!
So our local NPR station is airing a program this morning with a vax expert from Princeton. I tweeted at them about why PA's vax rate was low relative to other states. They read my tweet on the air and said in fact that PA's vax rate is quite high - in the mid to high 90s, particular for measles.
So I was called wrong on the radio. LOLOL But now I have questions about the OP.
IIOY - Can you tweet this CDC link off to the NPR expert? It shows the MMR stats for school year 2013-2014 as reported in October 2014 as 84.5% for MMR and no requirement for DtaP for school entry in PA. Look at table 1 in the data following the report: www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6341a1.htm#Fig
State: Pennsylvania††¶¶
Kindergarten population†: 151,253
Total surveyed: 151,253
Proportion surveyed (%): 100.0
Type of survey conducted§: Census
MMR (%): 85.3
DTaP (%): NReq†††
Varicella (%): 84.0
Footnotes:
†† The proportion surveyed is probably <100%, but is shown as 100% based on incomplete information about the actual current enrollment.
¶¶ Counts the vaccine doses received regardless of Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended age and time interval; vaccination coverage rates shown might be higher than those for valid doses.
††† Pertussis is not required in Pennsylvania; coverage for diphtheria and tetanus was 88.3%.
When I got in my car and heard the program, I couldn't resist tweeting!
My concern is that I thought I had seen PA listed elsewhere as having a low relative immunization rate, so I'm confused. I'm wondering if we have a high level of *delayed* vaccinations and that's why we have a high number of unvaccinated Kindys.
So our local NPR station is airing a program this morning with a vax expert from Princeton. I tweeted at them about why PA's vax rate was low relative to other states. They read my tweet on the air and said in fact that PA's vax rate is quite high - in the mid to high 90s, particular for measles.
So I was called wrong on the radio. LOLOL But now I have questions about the OP.
IIOY - Can you tweet this CDC link off to the NPR expert? It shows the MMR stats for school year 2013-2014 as reported in October 2014 as 84.5% for MMR and no requirement for DtaP for school entry in PA. Look at table 1 in the data following the report: www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6341a1.htm#Fig
State: Pennsylvania††¶¶
Kindergarten population†: 151,253
Total surveyed: 151,253
Proportion surveyed (%): 100.0
Type of survey conducted§: Census
MMR (%): 85.3
DTaP (%): NReq†††
Varicella (%): 84.0
Footnotes:
†† The proportion surveyed is probably <100%, but is shown as 100% based on incomplete information about the actual current enrollment.
¶¶ Counts the vaccine doses received regardless of Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended age and time interval; vaccination coverage rates shown might be higher than those for valid doses.
††† Pertussis is not required in Pennsylvania; coverage for diphtheria and tetanus was 88.3%.
Done. Unfortunately the program is ending, but I included the expert on my tweet so I'm hopeful he might respond once off the air.
IIOY - Can you tweet this CDC link off to the NPR expert? It shows the MMR stats for school year 2013-2014 as reported in October 2014 as 84.5% for MMR and no requirement for DtaP for school entry in PA. Look at table 1 in the data following the report: www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6341a1.htm#Fig
....
¶¶ Counts the vaccine doses received regardless of Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended age and time interval; vaccination coverage rates shown might be higher than those for valid doses.
Done. Unfortunately the program is ending, but I included the expert on my tweet so I'm hopeful he might respond once off the air.
I hope they answer. Oh and I'm thinking it's something with the ¶¶ footnote. I can't quite tell you what that means, but I'm guessing it's an autoreporting thing from the schools and something doesn't match up between the PA and CDC systems.
But can we get back to the fact that I finally got my 15 minutes seconds of fame and it was to be told on live radio in a major city that I was wrong? LOLOLOL
Done. Unfortunately the program is ending, but I included the expert on my tweet so I'm hopeful he might respond once off the air.
I hope they answer. Oh and I'm thinking it's something with the ¶¶ footnote. I can't quite tell you what that means, but I'm guessing it's an autoreporting thing from the schools and something doesn't match up between the PA and CDC systems.
I haven't dug into the weeds on this, but one thing I read is that a lot of parents opt out of the HPV vaccine for their kids (or postpone until well past the recommended age) , and that sometimes these kids are counted as not being "fully vaccinated."
Parents who don't vax their kids for HPV because they think their kids will only have sex with their husband are foolish, but the threats to society aren't even in the same ballpark. But if data is including HPV opt-outs/delays and treating those people like people who opt out or delay MMR, then you wind up with really skewed results.
I hope they answer. Oh and I'm thinking it's something with the ¶¶ footnote. I can't quite tell you what that means, but I'm guessing it's an autoreporting thing from the schools and something doesn't match up between the PA and CDC systems.
I haven't dug into the weeds on this, but one thing I read is that a lot of parents opt out of the HPV vaccine for their kids (or postpone until well past the recommended age) , and that sometimes these kids are counted as not being "fully vaccinated."
Parents who don't vax their kids for HPV because they think their kids will only have sex with their husband are foolish, but the threats to society aren't even in the same ballpark. But if data is including HPV opt-outs/delays and treating those people like people who opt out or delay MMR, then you wind up with really skewed results.
I wonder if that's what's going on here.
Nope, CDC does not use HPV when reporting vaccine rates for states yet. Only MMR, DtaP, and Varicella.
When I got in my car and heard the program, I couldn't resist tweeting!
My concern is that I thought I had seen PA listed elsewhere as having a low relative immunization rate, so I'm confused. I'm wondering if we have a high level of *delayed* vaccinations and that's why we have a high number of unvaccinated Kindys.
The expert tweeted back and it is indeed a delay issue, but not the type I thought. He said that the MMR booster is given at 4-6 years old, and that the CDC link I tweeted at him showing low immunization was probably for both doses. Because some children enter Kindy without having gotten the second dose yet, it will skew the data downward to make it look as though vax rates are low.
Here's another CDC link he sent me that shows 93.3% of children ages 19-35m have their first dose of MMR.