By MIKE STOBBE

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates dipped last year and the proportion of children with exemptions rose to an all-time high, according to federal data posted Tuesday.

The share of kids exempted from vaccine requirements rose to 3.3%, up from 3% the year before. Meanwhile, 92.7% of kindergartners got their required shots, which is a little lower than the previous two years. Before the COVID-19 pandemic the vaccination rate was 95%, the coverage level that makes it unlikely that a single infection will spark a disease cluster or outbreak.

The changes may seem slight but are significant, translating to about 80,000 kids not getting vaccinated, health officials say.

The rates help explain a worrisome creep in cases of whooping cough, measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases, said Dr. Raynard Washington, chair of the Big Cities Health Coalition, which represents 35 large metropolitan public health departments.

“We all have been challenged with emerging outbreaks … across the country,” said Washington, the director of the health department serving Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show that coverage with MMR, DTaP, polio and chickenpox vaccines decreased in more than 30 states among kindergartners for the 2023-2024 school year, Washington noted.

Public health officials focus on vaccination rates for kindergartners because schools can be cauldrons for germs and launching pads for community outbreaks.

For years, those rates were high, thanks largely to school attendance mandates that required key vaccinations. All U.S. states and territories require that children attending child care centers and schools be vaccinated against a number of diseases, including, measles, mumps, polio, tetanus, whooping cough and chickenpox.

All states allow exemptions for children with medical conditions that prevent them from receiving certain vaccines. And most also permit exemptions for religious or other nonmedical reasons.

In the last decade, the percentage of kindergartners with medical exemptions has held steady, at about 0.2%. But the percentage with nonmedical exemptions has inched up, lifting the overall exemption rate from 1.6% in the 2011-2012 school year to more than twice that last year.

The rates can be influenced by state laws or policies that make it harder or easier to obtain exemptions, and by local attitudes among families and doctors about the need to get children vaccinated. For example, according to the CDC data, 14.3% of kindergartners had an exemption to one or more vaccines in Idaho. But fewer than 1% did in Connecticut and Mississippi.

Within states, clustering of unvaccinated kids can be even more concentrated in particular communities or schools, said Noel Brewer, a University of North Carolina professor of health behavior.

“People who are skeptical (about vaccinees) tend to live close to one another and create the conditions for a breakthrough of measles and other diseases,” he said.

The slide in vaccination rates was not unexpected. Online misinformation and the political schism that emerged around COVID-19 vaccines have led more parents to question the routine childhood vaccinations that they used to automatically accept, experts say.

A decrease has already been reported in Louisville, Kentucky — a city that has been celebrated as a vaccination success story. And a CDC report last week noted a decline in vaccination rates for 2-year-olds.

Measles and whooping cough cases are at their highest levels since 2019, and there are still three months left in the year. And 200 flu-associated pediatric deaths were reported in the 2023-2024 season, the most since 2009.

Charlotte’s Mecklenburg County this year saw North Carolina’s first measles case since 2018. Mecklenburg also saw 19 whooping cough infections and three people with mumps earlier this year, said Washington, who noted the county usually sees none.

Increases in international travel and people moving to the Charlotte area from other countries raises the risk of introduction of vaccine-preventable diseases, “so it’s concerning when you start to lose coverage of vaccines among your population,” Washington said.

Bridgette Blount lived in a one-bedroom apartment for many years before her first grandchild was born in 2020. That’s when she decided it was time to buy her own home to entertain her grandson and host family for the holidays.

Blount, who is 57, began working with Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity in March of this year and closed on her Blaine townhouse in June. She worked with another lender before finding Habitat’s services and said she could easily pick up where she left off with the Advancing Black Homeownership Program, a special purpose credit program.

While going through the necessary processes, Blount said she attended six weeks of the program, one meeting every Saturday, that helped prepare people for the home-buying process and homeownership.

“People were there from all walks of life, some people needed financial coaching while some were ready to buy,” Blount said. “With all the knowledge that they give you, when you leave there you should have no questions.”

The program is another side of Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, which has 4,000 volunteers building 30 houses this week at the Heights, an environmentally sustainable community being developed at the former Hillcrest Golf Course site on St. Paul’s East Side, as this year’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project. The Work Project, an annual homebuilding effort launched in 1984 by former President Jimmy Carter, draws corporate donors, lawmakers, faith leaders and business executives together for a week of homebuilding.

The Work Project kicked off Monday with celebrity hosts Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood delivering remarks — and Jimmy Carter stories — at the work site.

Special purpose credit program

Crew Etheridge, Bridgette Blount’s 4-year-old grandson, looks around his bedroom at his grandmother’s house in Blaine on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. Blount was able to purchase a townhome in Blaine with help from Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

The Advancing Black Homeownership Program meets the special credit needs of people who have been impacted by systemic racism, lending discrimination and redlining, according to Habitat Financial Coach Pearll Warren.

“Historically financial institutions have relied on identifying geographical areas with high concentrations of poverty to offer special credit interventions, but Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity is one of the first to create a race-explicit special purpose credit program.”

Although this was not Blount’s first time buying a house, she said this was the smoothest process she’s been through. They answered her questions and were there if she had more.

“When I had bought a house before, I didn’t have nothing close to this,” Blount said. “What sticks with me the most is how they took care of us throughout this process.”

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Blount utilized Habitat’s open market home-buying track, meaning she could pick any house on the market in the Twin Cities metro area. With this path, a client needs to obtain their own realtor and go through the home-buying process similarly to the normal market, according to Warren.

In Blount’s case, she was pre-approved for a mortgage through the previous lender she worked with and already picked out a house on the market, so her process was faster than what could be expected. She said the time frame depends on how prepared someone is for Habitat to help them best.

Warren said the other home-buying path allows clients to purchase a habitat-developed or habitat-rehabbed property through its matching pool. They would receive letters from Habitat that include properties available within their pre-qualification range.

Both of these paths provide access to down payment assistance and other subsidies offered through the program.

Homeownership path

Habitat also offers financing options for a low-interest mortgage through its partnership with TCHFH Lending Inc., Habitat’s nonprofit mortgage company. The TruePath Mortgage offers benefits like a fixed interest rate, 30-year term and monthly payments set to no more than 30% of gross income. Warren said Habitat’s nonprofit status provides them access to down payment assistance programs and funding to subsidize mortgages for low- and middle- income families.

For more information go to tchabitat.org.

While homeownership may feel impossible for many, Blount says Habitat can help make it possible no matter where someone is in the process and even if they don’t qualify just yet.

“They’re gonna tell you what you need,” Blount said. “So don’t think ‘Because I’m in this place now, I won’t be able to.’ You’re in this place right now, this place right now could be prepping to that next place, which is homeownership.”

Warren said it’s a privilege to have the opportunity to work with people at multiple stages and guide them in achieving their goals.

“The more you apply yourself, the more we are going to work with you and make sure you achieve the goal of homeownership not just by purchasing a home, but by sustaining that home for generations to come,” Warren said.

Bridgette Blount slices a green pepper in the kitchen at her Blaine home on Wednesday, Sept, 25. 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

As Blount is settling into her new home, the milestone she’s looking forward to the most is hosting Thanksgiving dinner.

“That’s my holiday, that’s my favorite time of the year to cook,” Blount said. “I’m gonna crack the windows and doors and just have a wonderful time preparing my holiday meal.”

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By DIDI TANG

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that it would ban the import of goods from a Chinese steel manufacturer and a Chinese maker of artificial sweetener, accusing both of being involved in the use of forced labor from China’s far-west region of Xinjiang.

The action broadens the scope of the U.S. effort to counter products from entering the country that the government says are tied to human rights abuses.

The additions to the entity list under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act marks the first time a China-based steel company or aspartame sweetener business have been targeted by U.S. law enforcement, DHS said.

“Today’s actions reaffirm our commitment to eliminating forced labor from U.S. supply chains and upholding our values of human rights for all,” said Robert Silvers, undersecretary of Homeland Security for policy. “No sector is off-limits. We will continue to identify entities across industries and hold accountable those who seek to profit from exploitation and abuse.”

The federal law that President Joe Biden signed at the end of 2021 followed allegations of human rights abuses by Beijing against members of the ethnic Uyghur group and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. The Chinese government has refuted the claims as lies and defended its practice and policy in Xinjiang as fighting terror and ensuring stability.

The new approach marked a shift in the U.S. trade relationship with China to increasingly take into account national security and human rights. Beijing has accused the U.S. of using human rights as a pretext to suppress China’s economic growth.

Enforcement of the law initially targeted solar products, tomatoes, cotton and apparel, but over the last several months, the U.S. government has identified new sectors for enforcement, including aluminum and seafood.

“That’s just a reflection of the fact that sadly, forced labor continues to taint all too many supply chains,” Silvers told a trade group in June when marking the two-year anniversary of the creation of the entity list. “So our enforcement net has actually been quite wide from an industry-sector perspective.”

He said the law “changed the dynamic in terms of putting the onus on importers to know their own supply chains” and that its enforcement had showed that the U.S. could “do the right thing” without halting normal trade.

Since June 2022, the entity list has grown to a total of 75 companies accused of using forced labor in Xinjiang or sourcing materials tied to that forced labor, Homeland Security said.

Baowu Group Xinjiang Bayi Iron and Steel Co. Ltd and Changzhou Guanghui Food Ingredients Co. Ltd. were the Chinese companies newly added to the list.