Tasneem Raja and Chris Mooney compare state-by-state data on vaccine exemptions:
There’s evidence that tightening exemption laws makes a difference. After reaching an exemption rate of 7.6 percent in 2009, Washington state passed a law requiring parents to get a doctor’s signature if they wanted to opt out of their children’s vaccinations. In just two years, the exemption rate plummeted by more than 40 percent. Pertussis vaccination ratesclimbed to 92.4 percent in the past school year, representing “the highest pertussis vaccine completion rate for kindergartners since the state began to collect this data in the 2006-2007 school year,” according to the Washington’s Department of Health.
Razib Khan examines the data for patterns:
[R]ather than a standard Left-Right axis, I think we’re seeing a “crunchy counter-culture” sentiment.
The Dish 