Children are required to be immunized in order to enter school, and more than 96 percent of American children are adequately vaccinated by kindergarten. Yet about one million pre-school children are not adequately protected against possibly fatal illnesses. With increasing numbers of children more readily exposed to infectious disease in day-care settings, complete immunization by age 2 is critical. Failure to immunize can lead to new outbreaks of disease. Half of the deaths were infants.
Vaccines are cost -effective.