A Tale of Vaccination in Two Cities: Ashland, Oregon, and Houston, Texas, have both struggled to vaccinate children. That's where the similarities end.

In the U.S. today, there are a growing number of places like Ashland, Oregon: middle and upper-middle class suburban enclaves with a large number of parents who refuse vaccines for their children. Epidemiologic studies have found that families who refuse to vaccinate their children are more likely to live in well-educated, higher income areas than those who do not refuse. Two thousand miles away in Houston, the picture is very different. In the fifth largest city in the U.S., medical professionals do not struggle with the unvaccinated—children in places like Ashland whose parents voluntarily exempt their kids from immunization. They struggle with the under-vaccinated—economically disadvantaged minorities who do not get all recommend vaccinations because of barriers like cost or a low-resourced health system. Read the article.