Unvaccinated children would be barred from school, says health boss

State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney said that if measles returns to Mississippi, unvaccinated children will be barred from attending school during an outbreak, regardless of whether they hold a medical or religious exemption.

"When measles makes a comeback, all of our unvaccinated children will have to go home. They cannot go to school in the midst of a measles outbreak," Edney said on the department's podcast, Health Talk Mississippi, adding that the policy "includes the medical exemptions and the religious exemptions." Edney said Mississippi has not recorded a measles case since 1992 but that declining kindergarten vaccination rates in some counties raise the risk of the disease's return.

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