A: High priority. Super high.
*Please* try to keep your kids up-to-date on their vaccination schedule. It’s better for them, and better for all, but there is evidence that coverage is slipping as parents skip or delay well-child visits.
Wrapping up our weekend special series on kids + COVID with an up-close look at a particularly worrisome consequence of COVID-19: the drop in coverage rates for the routine child vaccination schedule.
Even when we aren’t in the midst of pandemic, we rely heavily on high rates of adherence to the routine childhood immunization schedule recommended by the CDC, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. For some diseases like measles that are very easy to catch and spread, we need 95% or more of kids to get 2 doses of a measles-containing vaccine (MCV) like the MMR shot to reach “herd immunity” — the ability to protect all kids by limiting the spread of the disease due to the virus not being able to find susceptible people to infect.
The CDC just published a new report showing a big drop in doses of MCV since mid-March (more details and link below). We get it — it might seem like a bad idea to take your kid to the pediatrician’s office when so many people are sick. But pediatric offices are getting very creative about setting up safe ways to get your child vaccinated: drive-through visits, mobile vans, and morning vs. afternoon time slots for well vs. sick visits. If your child is due or scheduled for a well-child visit that includes vaccines, call ahead to see what their plans are, and then follow through if you can.
So here’s the low-down on that recent CDC report:
For the week of April 13, there were about 3,000,000 fewer doses of non-influenza vaccine ordered compared to the same week last year, including about 400,000 fewer measles-containing vaccine doses.
Compared to January and February 2020, the number of MCV doses administered dropped by about 50% (from about 2,000 per week to 1,000 per week) for kids <24 months old. For kids 24 months to 18 years, the drop is even more stark: from 2,500 per week to 500 per week. Yikes!
This suggests that we will have a ton of focused “catch-up” vaccination work to do in the coming years. Please do your part now by keeping your kids on their vaccination schedule!
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6919e2.htm…
