Kindergarten vaccination rates fall again; hundreds of federal datasets altered or deleted; robot dentists — Morning Medical Update

Kindergarten vaccination rates fall again as exemptions climb

Coverage slipped 0.1% nationally, but exemptions rose in 41 states and Washington, D.C., and 24 states now report rates above 5%.

U.S. kindergarten vaccination coverage fell 0.1% during the 2025-2026 school year, according to CDC data released Aug. 17. Coverage ranged from 92% for DTaP to 92.4% for MMR and polio, below the 95% two-dose threshold the CDC says is needed to prevent measles from spreading. Exemptions from at least one vaccine rose to 4.2% from 3.6%, climbing in 41 states and Washington, D.C. Twenty-four states reported exemptions above 5%.

The national figure masks wider variation. Coverage for MMR, DTaP, polio and varicella fell in more than half of states, and about 280,000 kindergartners started the year without documentation of a completed MMR series. Jen Kates of KFF said large drops in particular parts of the country are pulling the average down, and that those pockets are where outbreaks take hold. Texas held flat at 93.2% for MMR after last year's outbreak; California fell 0.4 points to 95.7%. The U.S. has confirmed 2,566 measles cases this year, the most in more than 35 years.

Health data lead the list of altered federal datasets

A tracker from a group of data policy experts counts 28 deleted collections and 338 modified across more than 60 agencies.

At least 28 federal datasets have been deleted and 338 modified over the past year and a half, according to a tracker released this month by dataindex.us, a group of data policy experts and researchers formed last year to monitor government data. Health collections make up about 40% of the total, the largest share among more than 60 agencies. Several CDC surveys, including the National HIV Surveillance System and the National Violent Death Reporting System, have dropped questions on gender identity, changes the group attributes to a Trump executive order.

At least four health datasets are no longer updated at all, among them the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Drug Abuse Warning Network, which tracked drug-related emergency department visits in near real time. The group says its count is incomplete and likely an undercount: agencies are not required to announce terminations, some collections have lapsed for lack of staff, and routine updates can be hard to distinguish from permanent removal. Co-founder Denice Ross was U.S. chief data scientist under President Joe Biden.

Robots take a turn at tooth transplants

An autonomous system prepared tooth transplant sockets more precisely than a static surgical guide, though the testing used 3D-printed jaw models.

An autonomous multi-axis robotic system prepared recipient sockets for tooth autotransplantation with greater geometric accuracy than a conventional static surgical guide, according to an in vitro study published June 30 in the International Journal of Oral Science. Researchers at the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi'an, China, tested the two methods on 40 3D-printed mandibular models, split evenly between techniques and between single- and double-rooted anatomies.

Both approaches performed similarly at the socket entry point, but the robotic system produced smaller deviations at the socket's deepest point, more precise drilling angles and closer agreement with the planned root shape, while removing less surrounding bone. The advantage was widest in double-rooted teeth. Preparation times were comparable. The work used printed models rather than patients, and the authors said clinical studies are needed to determine whether the added precision shortens extra-alveolar time or improves healing, stability and long-term outcomes.