I’m surprised it isn’t Charlotte Mecklenburg County or Durham. But Asheville would have been a good guess, too.
Of the 28 children enrolled in kindergarten at the school during the 2017-2018 school year,
about 19 claimed religious exemption from vaccines
— a higher rate of exemptions than all but two other schools in the state, according to the Citizen Times.
"When we see high numbers of unimmunized children and adults, we know that an illness like chickenpox can spread easily throughout the community
— into our playgrounds, grocery stores, and sports teams.”
Despite evidence pointing to immunizations as an effective way to protect against diseases like chickenpox,
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said this year
that the percentage of children with no vaccinations under the age of 2 quadrupled since 2001.(Emphasis Mine)
Anti-vaccination sentiments have taken off among some communities in recent years,
spurred by the myth that vaccines are linked to increased rates of autism
that dates back to a now-debunked and retracted 1998 study."
The CDC also found an overall increase in exemption rates for kindergarten-age children,
with Oregon holding the highest median rate.