Half of all U.S. states have increasing childhood vaccination exemption rates, according to Tanya Karwaki, JD and Patricia Kuszler, MD, JD, from the University of Washington School of Law. Karwaki and Kuszler propose that enacting laws to make exemptions more difficult to obtain could improve public health outcomes.

The Critical Opportunities initiative of the Public Health Law Research (PHLR) program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation presents evidence and ideas for proposed legal and policy changes that can positively impact public health challenges. This video presents these ideas and evidence, and includes the practical and political feasibility of implementing the proposed changes to laws and policies. All Critical Opportunities videos can be viewed at http://youtube.com/CriticalOpps4PHL