Cecilia Ramirez spends her summer crisscrossing the Oklahoma City area.
She drives a van decorated with smiling cartoon kids and suns designed to look like they were drawn with chalk. Her van is stocked with all the vaccinations necessary for Oklahoma school enrollment, such as tetanus, measles and polio. It also has some immunizations that are recommended but not required, like meningitis and human papillomavirus.
Ramirez’s van is one of several operated by the Blue Cross Blue Shield’s Oklahoma Caring Foundation that travels around the state to administer free vaccines to children who are uninsured or on Medicaid and who otherwise might not be able to easily access them.
Last year, the Caring Vans program vaccinated over 6,850 kids at over 760 stops.
But despite efforts to increase immunization rates by providing free and more accessible vaccinations, experts say Oklahoma’s overall child vaccination rates are down amid skepticism about the efficacy of vaccines. They also said they’re seeing an increasing number of parents utilizing a state law that allows the children to opt out of required vaccinations, which raises the risk of contracting preventable illnesses when school starts again next month.
Dr. Steven Crawford, a family physician and the chair for the Oklahoma Alliance for Healthy Families, says child vaccination rates in Oklahoma have been declining for many years, but the state saw a big drop after the COVID-19 pandemic.
This downward trend worries Crawford because he said when fewer kids are vaccinated for preventable illnesses like measles, polio and chickenpox, the diseases spread more easily.
Last year, the state experienced a spike in the number of measles cases amid a national outbreak. Most cases involved individuals not vaccinated against the disease, according to health officials.
“Being in a school environment puts both the children themselves and their classmates at risk of transmitting infections that could be totally prevented,” Crawford said.
State law allows parents to obtain exemptions for their child for “medical, religious or personal beliefs.”
An Oklahoma Department of Health survey found exemption rates were up, with 7.6% of public school kindergarteners and 12.4% of kindergarteners in private school being granted exemptions last school year, compared to 3.3% of kindergarteners in public schools and 7% of private school kindergarteners exempted in the 2021-22 school year. An overwhelming majority of the survey’s reported exemptions were for non-medical reasons.
Tulsa County health officials said they have seen a decrease in overall vaccination rates for children. Kindergarten vaccination rates ticked up slightly in Oklahoma County last school year to 87%, but are still down from 91% from the 2020-21 school year, health officials said.
Crawford attributes the rising exemption rates to misinformation about vaccines. He did not place the blame on any person or organization, but said parents are being inundated online with “bad information” about vaccines.
“They think they’re doing the right thing, and they go online and they get onto a site that creates confusion and eventually could cause harm to them or their children,” Crawford said.
He recommends parents obtain vaccine information from reputable medical groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Oklahomans also face access barriers, including a lack of appointments, worries about cost and vaccine availability, Crawford said. He said programs like the Oklahoma Caring Foundation’s mobile immunization program are a helpful tool.
On a recent summer morning Caring Van staff were giving out free vaccinations at the Latino Community Development Agency.
Obi Bowling, a retired U.S. Air Force veteran, said his 13-year-old daughter needed vaccination records in order to enroll in school.
Bowling said they had accidentally left the teen’s vaccination records in Mexico where the family had most recently lived and needed updated records to enroll her in school.
“It’s the only thing we were lacking,” Bowling said. “It’s the only thing we missed.”
He found the clinic advertised online. Caring Van staff were able to use a picture to update his daughter’s record and gave her the four shots she needed to start high school next month.
The program seeks to raise vaccination rates in Oklahoma by removing access barriers, said program coordinator Liz Davidson.
“We are excited that people really appreciate the access and how we’re able to eliminate the kind of issues that they might run into to receive that access,” Davidson said.
Staff stop at places parents and their children might already be, such as schools and libraries. The program requires a consent form signed by a parent before a shot can be administered.
“What’s special about us is we go where kids spend their days,” Davidson said. “So while we’re not a brick and mortar, we’re able to travel around so we can go where people are.”
Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence.
