Rates of childhood vaccinations have dropped significantly during COVID-19, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, likely a result of parents’ reluctance to schedule well-child visits at their doctor’s offices during this pandemic.
Now, public health experts worry about a spike in vaccine-preventable diseases in addition to the spread of COVID-19.
During the past several months, the risk of infection for diseases like measles and pertussis, better known as whopping cough, has been relatively low because with schools closed and most people following stay-at-home orders, people were not in close proximity to others. Now that states are easing restrictions and allowing people to move about more freely in their communities, there is a fear of outbreak for diseases, particularly measles.
At University Medical Center, pediatricians are urging parents not to skip well-child visits and to make sure their children are current on their vaccinations. Doctors and nurses are contacting the parents of pediatric patients who might be behind on their childhood shots.
“We’re working really hard to ensure that all of our children who need vaccines are coming in for their vaccines,” said Dr. Karen Burgess, a pediatrician and chair of the Pediatrics Department at The University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences, which operates UMC. “The last thing we need in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic is to have an outbreak of measles or pertussis.”
Public health officials estimate that a community vaccination rate from 93% to 95% is needed to prevent a widespread outbreak of measles. Recent measles outbreaks in the U.S. have raised fears that the disease, which was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, could become endemic here again.