And it doesn’t involve sports, illiteracy or obesity:
More than half the states in America have seen a decline over the past decade in the take-up rates among kindergarten children of vaccines against diseases such as measles, mumps, hepatitis B and polio, as unfounded anti-vaccination theories have spread.
A new study by Health Testing Centers has found between 2009 and 2018 27 of the 50 US states experienced a drop in the percentage of vaccinated kindergarten-age children. In Georgia and Arkansas, the decline was more than 6%.
The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR), which is the focus of much activity by the so-called anti-vaxxer movement, is especially vulnerable. Alarmingly, the study finds that more than half of the states – 26 in total – have vaccination rates that have fallen below the target of 95% which experts state is needed to provide maximum protection against the diseases.
Three states – Colorado (88.7%), Kansas (89.1%) and Idaho (89.5%) – have rates that have fallen below the 90% that scientists say renders populations particularly vulnerable to a measles outbreak.
[…] Mississippi stands at the top of the league table for MMR, with 99.4% of its kindergartners vaccinated.
States other than Mississippi can send their thank you cards and other plaudits to Robert Kennedy Jr and some crank named Larry Cook, cc Mark Zuckerberg, since Kennedy and Cook have purchased the majority of the anti-vaxx ads on Facebook, which, of course, accepts them since they have no corporate policy other than the creation and maintenance of stupidity among users of their shitty app.