A new Santa Barbara County Grand Jury report asks whether a drop in vaccination rates could put us at risk for outbreaks of diseases like mumps, measles, and polio. The report concludes that the county doesn’t have the information it needs to answer that question.
The Grand Jury report said the county does a good job of ensuring children get mandated vaccines for diseases like mumps and measles. However, it concluded there is a lack of information about vaccination rates for homeschooled children and adults in the county.
The Grand Jury said the result is that we don’t know what the risk might be of a local surge in these diseases, like the measles outbreak that occurred in Texas.
It calls on Santa Barbara County Supervisors to order studies to check vaccination rates among homeschooled kids, adults, and jail inmates for more than a half dozen diseases, ranging from chicken pox to polio.
The report says the data can be used to boost vaccination rates to prevent disease outbreaks.
