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Kindergartens in the United States lagged behind routine childhood immunizations during the pandemic, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on ThursdayA slideshow by experts linking to groundbreaking resistance to the Covid-19 shots spreading to skipped checks and unease about other vaccines.
About 94 percent of kindergarten students in the 2020-21 school year had the required vaccinations, a decrease of about one percentage point from the previous school year, the CDC said. This has driven coverage levels below the 95 percent target, raising fears that life-threatening childhood diseases like measles may become more common at some point.
Deputy director of the CDC’s immunization services division, Dr. “This means that during this time there are another 35,000 children in the United States who do not have full proof of vaccination against common diseases,” Georgina Peacock said at a news conference on Thursday. “This is further proof of how epidemic-related cuts in education and healthcare can have lasting consequences for children.”
Dr. Peacock said that kindergarten enrollments have also dropped by about 10 percent, meaning that about 400,000 more children who were expected to start school but were unable to receive routine vaccinations may be lagging behind.
Some states showed dramatic decreases in coverage, while others remained more stable. Maryland, for example, reported a nearly 10 percent decline in measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination coverage among kindergartens from the 2019-20 school year to 2020-21. Wisconsin, Georgia, Wyoming, and Kentucky reported declines of around 5 percent.
Idaho was among the lowest levels of coverage with the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine at 86.5 percent in the 2020-21 school year.
The CDC said coverage has dropped in most of the states. Virginia, Kansas, and Alabama were among the few states to report higher levels of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines last school year.
CDC scientists stressed that additional barriers to reporting vaccine data during the pandemic, including reduced staffing and difficulties in collecting information from parents, may also artificially lower registered coverage levels in some places.
Nationally, vaccine coverage for the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine has dropped to just under 94 percent; diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis vaccine; and for the chickenpox vaccine, the CDC said. United States already almost lost its status as the country that eradicated measles in 2019. During that year, the country experienced unusually high numbers of measles outbreaks in communities where vaccination levels have fallen.
CDC scientists attributed the coverage drops in part to missed checkups of healthy children, which pediatricians say some families avoid during the pandemic for fear of contact with children with Covid. Disruptions in schooling, including easing immunization requirements for distance learners and heavy demands on school nurses, could also contribute to reduced vaccinations, the agency said.
Pediatricians have said in interviews that these issues also coincide with the growing anti-vaccine misinformation about coronavirus vaccines, which has led to greater resistance to ordinary vaccines.
A pediatrician who works in a suburb of Dallas and also serves as the spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. “There is a greater proportion of parents who question routine vaccinations,” said Jason V. Terk.
“The experience of the pandemic and the agenda-driven disinformation being pushed out about Covid vaccines,” he added, “have indeed fed the fire of mistrust and skepticism, a new epidemic of hesitation for routine vaccines. ”
Public health experts also recommend that some state legislatures restrictions requiring vaccinationbut they said many invoices are still pending.
The CDC study found no evidence of an increase in families seeking exemptions during the pandemic: The percentage of kindergarten students exempted for one or more required vaccines was 2.2 percent in 2020-21, similar to the figure reported a year ago, he said. .
The agency said it estimates vaccine coverage based on numbers provided by federally funded immunization programs that work with schools and local education departments to examine students’ immunization and exemption status. He noted that the pandemic has sometimes interfered with immunization data collection and reporting efforts, with national coverage estimates for 2020-21 only covering 47 out of 50 states and Washington DC.
Signs that childhood immunization rates are falling Appeared earlier in the pandemicIncluding reduced vaccine orders from states as part of a federally funded program for uninsured patients.
A pediatrician in Phoenix who cares for patients whose families are often poor or homeless, Dr. Gary Kirkilas said it’s often simple to talk about vaccinations with parents of kids starting kindergarten. After all, he said, the vaccines needed at that age are effective booster doses, often administered at younger ages.
However, he said, immunization of children in families who are not used to seeing a doctor on a temporary, regular basis or who do not trust the medical community requires special attention. Dr. Kirkilas said healthy child check-ups that were skipped during the pandemic are exacerbating these problems.
While some families were dying to get their children vaccinated against Covid and other diseases, another was more resilient than ever.
“All the rumors about vaccines for kids and the misinformation that was going on at the time – this reinforced a certain section of families where ‘I don’t trust the flu vaccine and then I don’t trust the Covid vaccine either. and maybe I’m starting to distrust vaccines in general,'” he said.
CDC scientists have said they are hopeful that the return of face-to-face education will accelerate efforts to catch children with routine vaccines. They encouraged schools to send reminders to families whose children were left behind, and said doctors should alert families that children should receive additional vaccinations.
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