With rampant diabetes and obesity, Mississippi and West Virginia have struggled with health crises. Yet when it comes to getting children vaccinated, these states don't mess around. The states, among the poorest in the country, are the only ones that refuse to exempt school children from mandatory vaccinations based on their parents' personal or religious beliefs. Separate efforts to significantly loosen those rules died in both states' legislatures last week. Mississippi has the highest immunization rate in the country for children entering kindergarten at 99.7 percent, while West Virginia is at roughly 96 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
