NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Tennessee’s kindergarten immunization rate has fallen once again for the fourth year in a row, with 92.3% of those children fully vaccinated.

“Safety, that’s the biggest thing that goes through my head when I hear that low number, as well as it’s been declining for three, four years now. That puts children’s lives at risk, that puts teachers’ lives at risk, that puts communities at risk,” said Dr. Dontal Johnson, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Meharry Medical College.

For herd immunity against measles and polio outbreaks, doctors would like to see 95% of students immunized.

In Middle Tennessee, kindergarteners in Cheatham and Dickson did meet that threshold. Rutherford and Montgomery County students came in right around 93%. Maury County had some of the lowest rates in our area, with roughly 88% of kindergarteners vaccinated.

“I’m seeing multiple young mothers and fathers in my office that say, ‘I’m now the only person in my friend group who’s vaccinating their child. I am the black sheep. I am the outlier,'” said Dr. Daniel Mathis with Compass Pediatrics. “So when you have those pockets of communities that aren’t vaccinating, they are more at risk for infections to be spreading, similar to how we saw in West Texas earlier this year with the measles case in an unvaccinated community.”

State health officials are seeing an uptick in religious exemptions alongside falling vaccination rates. Dr. Mathis said he’s personally seen immunizations decline, especially since COVID-19.

“The mortality and morbidity rate in children used to be much higher,” Mathis said. “You go to any kind of cemetery-grave yard, you look at tombstones, you say, ‘Wow, there’s a number of children who died early, and we don’t really see that today.’ And my fear is it might take that increasing to really raise awareness to say, ‘Hey, this was efficacious. We need to start vaccinating again.'”

To get your child vaccinated, Dr. Johnson invites you to bring them to Meharry Medical College. If you’re on the fence about vaccinating, he asks that you still come before ruling it out.

“All of the shots that we give, those are vaccines that have eliminated over millions of deaths, have helped people from 500 million illnesses over the past 30 years,” Dr. Johnson said. “Let’s sit down and have that conversation. And then we can come together… and get really what every parent, I believe, really wants, which is they want a healthy child. They want a child that’s safe. They want a child that can go out there and play and have fun.”