“When vaccination rates decline, we worry about an increase in vaccine-preventable diseases that can be harmful to children,” said Dr. Bradley Ackerson, a pediatric infectious disease specialist and lead author of a study examining the pandemic’s impact on childhood vaccinations published in Pediatrics. “Also, we know there has been a reduction in childhood vaccinations worldwide, and as COVID-19 restrictions are relaxed, there will be an increased risk of outbreaks due to vaccine-preventable diseases among children returning from outside the United States, unless children here are vaccinated.”
The study examined a large integrated healthcare delivery system in Southern California and found that during the first six months of COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine administrations remained lower in older children — with about one-third fewer weekly vaccine administrations than in the same weeks in 2019, complete vaccination coverage declined in all children, and measles vaccination coverage worsened in young children, markedly increasing the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases.
All 50 states plus Washington, D.C. require students to be immunized before they can attend public school, and while requirements vary, every state mandates vaccination against measles, mumps, rubella, polio and chickenpox, among others.
If a CDPH staff member finds that a medical exemption is inappropriate or otherwise invalid, it will be reviewed by the state public health officer or their physician/surgeon designee and revoked under prescribed circumstances. Medical exemptions written before Jan. 1, 2020, are not under state review, but new medical exemptions are required when a child enters kindergarten, seventh grade or changes schools.
This year, the state created an online portal so that immunization records will go directly to the CDPH; the portal also allows school administrators access once a child attending the school has been issued a medical exemption in the system.
The National Public Health Information Coalition offers a toolkit containing key messages, vaccine information and helpful links to web resources from the CDC and other organizations at www.nphic.org/niam.