MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The U.S. has counted about 2,000 measles cases so far this year. Still, more parents than ever before are opting their kids out of vaccines. Michigan used to have one of the highest school vaccination exemption rates, so public officials made it harder for parents to opt out. It worked until it didn't. Kate Wells with our partner KFF Health News explains.
KATE WELLS, BYLINE: Michigan is a state where you can opt your kid out of vaccines for pretty much any reason. And so for many years, if you were trying to register your kid for school and you forgot to get them that tetanus booster...
NORM HESS: You know, at the last minute, oops, I forgot to do this. I'm just going to sign a waiver and be done with.
WELLS: Has is the executive director of the Michigan Association for Local Public Health.
HESS: That's not really the way we want parents to make decisions on this issue.
WELLS: So in 2014, health officials created a new rule for parents wanting a waiver for religious or personal reasons. The parents first had to attend a vaccine education session at the local health department in person.
JUAN MARQUEZ: Essentially, sit, listen to an educational session and then sign a waiver that goes into their record.
WELLS: Dr. Juan Marquez is a local county medical director in the Ann Arbor area. Initially, this new process worked. Fewer parents were getting these waivers. But some parents felt like these education sessions were insulting. Jennifer Wortz is a Republican state representative. At a vaccine choice rally last year, she talked about her experience as a mom attending an education session.
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JENNIFER WORTZ: It was very demeaning. I had a very negative experience there, simply because we made the choices that we felt were best for each one of our children.
WELLS: Then when the pandemic hit, the anger and animosity around lockdowns and mandates really spilled into these sessions. Marquez, the county medical director, says they became unsafe for staff.
MARQUEZ: You can imagine to come through the session, sit through have somebody yell at you or, you know, just say not-nice things to your face, and you just kind of sit through hours of that is demoralizing.
WELLS: Last fall at a high school north of Detroit, a dad refused to get the waiver for his kids. The school said, look, to keep them legally enrolled here, we need that waiver. This led to a series of confrontations, and the principal called the police. The sheriff's deputy even drove to the dad's house. Here's the deputy, Kevin Smith, during a follow-up call with the dad, as recorded on his body cam.
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KEVIN SMITH: You got to go through the health department and do their stupid 10-minute course and sign your stupid waiver to have your kids enrolled.
WELLS: This tear, health officials in that county, St. Clair County, decided to just flat-out drop this requirement. It's now the first county to make vaccine waivers available entirely online. Dr. Remington Nevin is the medical director.
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REMINGTON NEVIN: Parents who have felt coerced, parents who have felt pressured into getting vaccines, they are going to experience a new era of vaccine choice in St. Clair County.
WELLS: State health officials are not fighting the change. In fact, the state has helped more than 30 counties switch to online education sessions. Here's a clip from the online session the state helped develop.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: For diseases that spread easily, a few unvaccinated people can start an outbreak.
WELLS: After that, parents still have to go to their local health department, but only to get the waiver signed. The goal now is to try to meet people where they are, offer information and don't burn bridges. But the growing number of people opting out of vaccines worries Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, the state's chief medical executive, especially given recent measles outbreaks in Michigan.
NATASHA BAGDASARIAN: When one of these measles cases ends up in a low-immunization community, that's when the ember really has a chance to expand and become a wildfire.
WELLS: She says in some Michigan schools now, as many as 70% of students are not fully vaccinated.
In Ann Arbor, Michigan, I'm Kate Wells.
MARTIN: Kate Wells is with our partner KFF Health News.
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