Santa Barbara Supervisors Weigh Vaccine Gaps as Federal Policy Unravels

[Updated: Wed., Aug. 20, 2025, 4:53pm]

The bells are chiming, the kids are going back to school, and with that comes the return of germs. On Tuesday, Santa Barbara County supervisors turned their attention to vaccination rates, responding to a May 29 grand jury report that praised strong coverage in local schools but pointed to troubling blind spots.

The report — “Do Vaccination Rates in Santa Barbara County Create a Public Health Risk?” — noted that while more than 95 percent of county students are vaccinated, officials lack reliable data on two groups: homeschooled children and incarcerated people.

Because homeschooled children are not required to submit vaccination records, their immunization status is effectively invisible. County staff modeled a “worst case scenario,” assuming all homeschooled students were unvaccinated. Even then, overall rates only dropped to 93 percent, still within herd immunity thresholds. 

The report also recommended tighter monitoring in the county jail, where crowded conditions make outbreaks more likely. Officials said jail medical staff already work to vaccinate people in custody, particularly against influenza and COVID-19, but acknowledged that systemic data gaps remain. Supervisors agreed that this blind spot is a problem, however, practical barriers, such as reliance on the state’s immunization registry and gaps in adult vaccination records make it difficult to solve.

Supervisor Joan Hartmann praised the findings, saying the county was “in relatively good shape” thanks to the health department. Supervisor Laura Capps, however, warned that the bigger threat was national: “Vaccinations are under assault and our whole system is really being dismantled by this administration as we have seen in the last six months.”

That balance — high local rates but vulnerable blind spots — was echoed by Dr. Lynn Fitzgibbons, director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Cottage Hospital, in an interview with the Independent. “The most reassuring information we have in our county is that people understand the importance of vaccinations,” she said. “At least for the majority of children from whom we have data, we have really strong rates. That’s where the conversation should start.”

Still, she noted, “We clearly have pockets of the community with lower vaccine rates, including the students who are homeschooled. The nuances of where we fall on herd immunity thresholds are important, but I worry too much focus there distracts from the main issue — making sure parents have good information, education, and access to reliable sources.”

With the first day of school coinciding with a summer COVID surge, Fitzgibbons said the timing is critical. “We always see an increase in coughs and colds this month,” she said. “We know influenza has fallen back into its usual rhythm of causing illness, hospitalization, and missed school over the winter. Now is a great time to be talking to your pediatrician about vaccines generally, and certainly about influenza and RSV.”

The local steadiness contrasts sharply with upheaval in Washington. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has cut nearly half a billion dollars in federal vaccine development funding, terminating 22 mRNA-related projects, and has rolled back recommendations for COVID-19 vaccination in healthy children and pregnant women — positions at odds with the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics.

“I am very worried that our local public health agencies are feeling the strength of what’s happening nationally,” Fitzgibbons said. “Federal cuts have reduced staffing, outreach, access to care. This is happening just as preventable diseases are on the rise globally. Resources are stretched very thin.”

In response to inquiry about what is happening on the federal level, Public Health Director Dr. Mouhanad Hammami told supervisors during the Tuesday meeting: “We certainly are keeping track of all the changes. One concern that is shared by us and also everybody in public health are some of the changes coming through ACIP [Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices]. … If we believe that the new guidelines are not consistent with what we believe, we are truly committed to what we truly believe what is for the benefit of our community and our residents and continuing on.”

Anne Carlisle, program manager for communicable disease control and prevention, underscored the county’s strong coordination with schools: “The immunization team here with county health has a very close relationship with the school district with county office of education. Actually our schools as a whole have 100 percent reporting rate, which is spectacular. Those relationships are key. Our team is very involved with community partners with health care systems.”

Santa Barbara’s supervisors formally adopted its response to the grand jury report on Tuesday. For now, the county maintains that even in worst-case assumptions, vaccination levels remain within herd immunity thresholds. Yet the convergence of flu season, the first day of school, and federal retrenchment on vaccine policy underscores the precariousness of public confidence in immunization.

Editor’s Note: This story was edited to include information about the Grand Jury’s recommendations regarding vaccination rates in the county jail.