Don’t misconstrue this. I don’t find it funny. Ironic and maddeningare better words. In fact, it makes me angry as hell because innocent children will sicken and die.
I don’t blame the parents, and of course, I don’t blame the children.
Despite an outbreak of measles last year in a Weston elementary school, Broward County saw a dramatic drop in its immunization rate for kindergartners in 2025.
In Broward, only 82.2% of 2024-25 kindergartners got their required vaccinations — the lowest level in 15 years. The public health goal is a vaccination rate of 95% — the level that makes it unlikely that a single infection will spark a disease cluster or outbreak.
The declining rate reflects the heated debate raging on social media and among South Florida parents.
THE ANTI-VACCINATION DOCTORS AT WORK.
“There’s a lot of distrust in the health system,” said Daniela Rodriguez, a Broward County mother with two children in elementary school and a 1-year-old. “After COVID, people have gotten more educated about vaccines and have started questioning things that weren’t questioned before.”
Public health officials focus on vaccination rates for kindergartners because elementary schools can be hot spots for germs and origins of community spread. By kindergarten, children must be vaccinated for diseases including measles, mumps, rubella, polio, chicken pox, and Hepatitis B. Outbreaks often start in small, localized areas, where the level of vaccination in that community determines its risk.
The other South Florida counties also have low immunization coverage in kindergartners. Palm Beach County reported 89.8% of 2024-25 kindergartners received their required vaccines, and Miami-Dade reported 91%.
Florida’s statewide rate for kindergarten vaccinations is 88.8%, well below the national average of 93%.
“When the rate is low, we are at an increased risk of some of these diseases we have seen eliminated making a comeback,” said Jennifer Takagishi, a Tampa pediatrician and vice president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
One of the vaccines given before kindergarten is for pertussis (whooping cough), which young children are more prone to catching during the fall and winter months. Florida has already had a record number of whooping cough cases in 2025 — more than 1,100 cases compared with 391 in 2019, before the pandemic. Children diagnosed with whooping cough, a respiratory infection, can lose their breath, have apnea spells, or vomit. Health experts expect to see a continued rise.
“Vaccination declines we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic aren’t rebounding,” said Takagishi, adding that it may take a year or two before the lowered immunization rate is reflected in a rash of diseases.
Despite an outbreak of measles last year in a Weston elementary school, Broward County saw a dramatic drop in its immunization rate for kindergartners in 2025.
In Broward, only 82.2% of 2024-25 kindergartners got their required vaccinations — the lowest level in 15 years. The public health goal is a vaccination rate of 95% — the level that makes it unlikely that a single infection will spark a disease cluster or outbreak.
The declining rate reflects the heated debate raging on social media and among South Florida parents.
“There’s a lot of distrust in the health system,” said Daniela Rodriguez, a Broward County mother with two children in elementary school and a 1-year-old. “After COVID, people have gotten more educated about vaccines and have started questioning things that weren’t questioned before.”
Public health officials focus on vaccination rates for kindergartners because elementary schools can be hot spots for germs and origins of community spread. By kindergarten, children must be vaccinated for diseases including measles, mumps, rubella, polio, chicken pox, and Hepatitis B. Outbreaks often start in small, localized areas, where the level of vaccination in that community determines its risk.
The other South Florida counties also have low immunization coverage in kindergartners. Palm Beach County reported 89.8% of 2024-25 kindergartners received their required vaccines, and Miami-Dade reported 91%.
Florida’s statewide rate for kindergarten vaccinations is 88.8%, well below the national average of 93%.
“When the rate is low, we are at an increased risk of some of these diseases we have seen eliminated making a comeback,” said Jennifer Takagishi, a Tampa pediatrician and vice president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
One of the vaccines given before kindergarten is for pertussis (whooping cough), which young children are more prone to catching during the fall and winter months. Florida has already had a record number of whooping cough cases in 2025 — more than 1,100 cases compared with 391 in 2019, before the pandemic. Children diagnosed with whooping cough, a respiratory infection, can lose their breath, have apnea spells, or vomit. Health experts expect to see a continued rise.
“Vaccination declines we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic aren’t rebounding,” said Takagishi, adding that it may take a year or two before the lowered immunization rate is reflected in a rash of diseases.
Exemptions are setting records
Florida law requires that students entering kindergarten be vaccinated for certain contagious diseases; however, they can be exempted by their doctor for medical reasons or by their parents if they affirm the shots conflict with the family’s religious practices. Across the U.S., the share of children with exemptions from required vaccines rose to an all-time high of 3.6% in 2024-25. In Florida, the group of kids exempted from vaccine requirements was 6.29%, surpassing the national average. And in some Florida counties, the exemption rate is as high as 15.03%, according to state health data.
The Florida Department of Health notes on its website: “The proportion of children age 5-17 years with new religious exemptions is increasing each month.” This implies that more parents choose to avoid at least some vaccines for their children.
With more children in schools who are unvaccinated, parents and older relatives are at risk, too.
“It’s not just about the danger of disease for the children; it is also dangerous for parents who may or may not have had a vaccine, for people whose immune systems are not working well, and for people who are older and were vaccinated a long time ago,” Takagishi said. “It’s putting a lot of people at risk.”
In February 2024, an outbreak of measles spread through Manatee Bay Elementary School in Weston, where 33 of the school’s 1,067 students lacked at least one shot of the two-dose measles vaccine. By the end of the outbreak, the disease had spread to nine children between birth and 14 years old. No adults were affected. However, so far this year, within the U.S., 462 people over age 20 have gotten measles compared with 77 in 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.
Each person’s risk for diseases such as measles varies, said Dr. Lewis Nelson, dean of Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine.
“We don’t really have a lot of great information on how good your immune response will be to an exposure if you got a vaccine many years ago,” Lewis said. “But what we do understand is that for most vaccines, most infections that have left you immunized, you store memory cells in your body that will react when you’re reexposed.”
Every MAGA should read it. But, of course, they either will not understand it or will deny it. One ALMOST could understand the German people being led by Hitler. Times were bad and they were suffering.
But no such excuse exists for today’s MAGAs, some of whom I’m sad to say, are my longtime friends. I now can’t stand to be with them. The Hitler example is so blatant and profound, that no one can say, “I never knew.” About the only truth they could utter is, “I am so stupid I deserve what will befall me.”
Each day a new stupidity, and the Trumpers blithely wander about, with stupid grins masked by hatred. Books will be written about this until the next stupid group burns them.
Oops, I just read where Trump wants to resurrect a statue of a traitor, and an incompetent one, at that. It would be a comedy, similar to the movie, “Airplane” were it not so real.
Rodger … This seems, at times, I am living in a sadly believable tragic/farce stage comedy or surreal painting of Hieronymus Bosch. “This really can’t be happening! How can they be so stupid.?!!” Yet the ethical perniciousness and metastasis of the body-politic spreads. Thanks again for your thoughtful comments. They are always appreciated.
Measles (MMR): ~97% effective with 2 doses (almost sterilizing immunity).
Polio (IPV): >90% effective after 3 doses.
Hepatitis B: ~95% protection after full series.
Tetanus (Tdap/Td): near 100% protection after primary series, boosters needed ~every 10 years.
Yellow Fever: ~99% long-term protection from a single shot.
Flu Vaccines
Seasonal Influenza: varies a lot year-to-year, usually 40–60% effective against symptomatic flu in healthy adults, but much better (~70–90%) at preventing hospitalization/severe disease.
COVID-19 Vaccines
mRNA (Pfizer/Moderna, 2021 original strain): ~95% efficacy against symptomatic disease early on; much higher (~99%) protection against hospitalization and death.
Against Omicron (2022–2023): ~40–60% against infection, but still ~80–90% against severe disease after boosting.
Novavax protein-based: ~90% against symptomatic disease (original strain), real-world data shows somewhat less with new variants.
Other Examples
HPV Vaccine: ~97–100% protection against targeted HPV strains (and their cancers) when given before exposure.
Shingles (Shingrix): >90% protection, even in older adults.
Pneumococcal Vaccines: effectiveness depends on strain covered, but typically 50–85% against invasive disease.
🔑 Summary:
The “gold standard” old vaccines (measles, polio, tetanus, yellow fever) are extremely effective (90–99%).
Modern ones like COVID, flu, pneumococcal are trickier because the virus mutates — so numbers are more like 40–90% depending on what you count.
Effectiveness is always higher for preventing hospitalization and death than for preventing mild infection.
I took a look at the CDC link you provided and it shows that people over 65 – like us – are only 93% immune if, as is likely the case, we only got the 1-shot Measles vaccine when we were children. That’s the reason it went to 2-shots for better protection. The outbreaks so far are largely, but not entirely, among people, mostly children, who have gotten 1 or fewer shots. The people with today’s single shot measles vaccine are LESS than half protected, because the first shot of a 2-shot dose is now a much smaller “primer” dose than the single shot dose most >65 year olds got as children.
What happens when old folks with one dose as children start getting sick or even dying in larger numbers? Lower immune systems that come with age. My flu vaccinators last year told me my flu vaccine was now a higher dose because I passed 65 and my body couldn’t respond as it did when I was younger.
I’ve already been asking my doctor if I should get a booster for vaccines I got as a child just because once almost extinct diseases are now soaring. He goes by the CDC and the CDC isn’t recommending that…yet. But, will they? Given how “sick” the country’s government health agencies are now, can we trust them to change with the science when new outbreaks start happening? Given how slow Trump was to even acknowledge Covid when it began in his first term, one has to wonder. But it’s so much worse now, with non-medical nincompoops like RFK Jr. in charge of Health and Human Services, of which CDC is just one small but vital part. This is how bad policies trickle down even to those of us who understand the truth and science.
I almost feel like people, especially children, have to die, in large numbers, in order to get back to the level of vaccine appreciation we had when vaccines started really saving lives in the 1940s and 50s. Many more people will get damaged, e.g. the measles can wipe out your entire immunity to ALL viral diseases: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/measles-immune-system-memory-infection. That barely gets reported but it may open up risks no one is even contemplating now. But the level of wilful ignorance is so much higher now – that’s why I DO blame the parents, and frankly, children of those kinds of parents will probably grow up the same way. So if they have to die to increase the level of awareness and proper reaction, that’s natural selection too.
But the knock-on effect on all of us is a reminder that none of us are immune from ignorance.
Thanks, Scott. I’ve taken the liberty of changing the last line of your comment to: “NONE (from “now”) of us are immune from ignorance.
I’m not sure that even a huge number of deaths will change the “minds” of MAGAs. They probably will say, “It would have been worse under Biden.” Isn’t that the usual mindless response?
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
Suggest downloading Dietrich Bonhoffer’s “Theory of Stupidity”
LikeLike
Every MAGA should read it. But, of course, they either will not understand it or will deny it. One ALMOST could understand the German people being led by Hitler. Times were bad and they were suffering.
But no such excuse exists for today’s MAGAs, some of whom I’m sad to say, are my longtime friends. I now can’t stand to be with them. The Hitler example is so blatant and profound, that no one can say, “I never knew.” About the only truth they could utter is, “I am so stupid I deserve what will befall me.”
Each day a new stupidity, and the Trumpers blithely wander about, with stupid grins masked by hatred. Books will be written about this until the next stupid group burns them.
Oops, I just read where Trump wants to resurrect a statue of a traitor, and an incompetent one, at that. It would be a comedy, similar to the movie, “Airplane” were it not so real.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Rodger … This seems, at times, I am living in a sadly believable tragic/farce stage comedy or surreal painting of Hieronymus Bosch. “This really can’t be happening! How can they be so stupid.?!!” Yet the ethical perniciousness and metastasis of the body-politic spreads. Thanks again for your thoughtful comments. They are always appreciated.
LikeLike
Classical Vaccines (long history, stable targets)
Flu Vaccines
COVID-19 Vaccines
Other Examples
🔑 Summary:
LikeLike
I took a look at the CDC link you provided and it shows that people over 65 – like us – are only 93% immune if, as is likely the case, we only got the 1-shot Measles vaccine when we were children. That’s the reason it went to 2-shots for better protection. The outbreaks so far are largely, but not entirely, among people, mostly children, who have gotten 1 or fewer shots. The people with today’s single shot measles vaccine are LESS than half protected, because the first shot of a 2-shot dose is now a much smaller “primer” dose than the single shot dose most >65 year olds got as children.
What happens when old folks with one dose as children start getting sick or even dying in larger numbers? Lower immune systems that come with age. My flu vaccinators last year told me my flu vaccine was now a higher dose because I passed 65 and my body couldn’t respond as it did when I was younger.
I’ve already been asking my doctor if I should get a booster for vaccines I got as a child just because once almost extinct diseases are now soaring. He goes by the CDC and the CDC isn’t recommending that…yet. But, will they? Given how “sick” the country’s government health agencies are now, can we trust them to change with the science when new outbreaks start happening? Given how slow Trump was to even acknowledge Covid when it began in his first term, one has to wonder. But it’s so much worse now, with non-medical nincompoops like RFK Jr. in charge of Health and Human Services, of which CDC is just one small but vital part. This is how bad policies trickle down even to those of us who understand the truth and science.
I almost feel like people, especially children, have to die, in large numbers, in order to get back to the level of vaccine appreciation we had when vaccines started really saving lives in the 1940s and 50s. Many more people will get damaged, e.g. the measles can wipe out your entire immunity to ALL viral diseases: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/measles-immune-system-memory-infection. That barely gets reported but it may open up risks no one is even contemplating now. But the level of wilful ignorance is so much higher now – that’s why I DO blame the parents, and frankly, children of those kinds of parents will probably grow up the same way. So if they have to die to increase the level of awareness and proper reaction, that’s natural selection too.
But the knock-on effect on all of us is a reminder that none of us are immune from ignorance.
LikeLike
Thanks, Scott. I’ve taken the liberty of changing the last line of your comment to: “NONE (from “now”) of us are immune from ignorance.
I’m not sure that even a huge number of deaths will change the “minds” of MAGAs. They probably will say, “It would have been worse under Biden.” Isn’t that the usual mindless response?
LikeLike