Students attending Dallas-area schools are less likely to be vaccinated against measles than they were five years ago, posing a risk to herd immunity amid increased outbreaks of the disease, an analysis of school vaccination data by The Washington Post found.
The investigation analyzed state-specific vaccination record data from pre-COVID school years and the 2024-2025 school year to track vaccination rates. Texas has recorded a 4% decline in the number of kindergarteners vaccinated against measles, mumps, and rubella — the trio of diseases treated by the MMR vaccine, which is required for kindergarten enrollment — dropping from 97% to 93% statewide. That is the lowest Texas’ MMR vaccination rate has been since at least 2011.
Doctors widely believe that a 95% vaccination rate is necessary to achieve “herd immunity,” the threshold that prevents the spread of a particular disease and helps protect individuals who cannot be vaccinated, whether due to age or immunocompromising conditions. For many Dallas-area classrooms, the vaccination rate is far below the state’s average. In the data Texas reported to Washington Post investigators, public schools are grouped into an overall, district-wide percentage, while private schools were reported individually…