Vaccine uptake among preschoolers has fallen to a 10-year low due to pandemic restrictions and a growing anti-vaccination movement sweeping the US.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), only 93 percent of children had their MMR, DTaP, chickenpox and polio vaccines by the start of the 2021-2022 school year, compared to 94 percent the year before .
That means about 250,000 people went to school without protection against potentially deadly diseases like measles, tetanus and polio, which are on the rise again in the US.
Dr. Sean O’Leary, chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Infectious Diseases, said: “Hundreds of thousands of children go to school without full protection against measles, mumps, whooping cough and other diseases that can easily spread in classrooms.”
He added that “outbreaks like this are harmful and troubling for children,” and warned that the problem “affects everyone in these communities.”
The study suggests that the declining vaccination rate is due to a number of pandemic factors.
The on-and-off of lockdowns and limited access to hospitals and clinics reportedly helped the number of preschoolers getting their shots drop by two percent.
But the recent upsurge in anti-vaccination sentiment – spurred by misinformation about Covid mRNA vaccines – may also have played a role in the increasing number of parents hesitating to vaccinate their children.
In October, the CDC added the Covid vaccine to the regular vaccination schedule, opening the door to local school districts across America to mandate vaccination.
In the United States, children are strongly recommended to receive the first dose of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine at about 12 months of age and the second dose at four to six years of age.
DTaP, which protects against diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis, requires an average of five doses administered between two months and four to six years of age.
Moderna begins testing an mRNA injection that is injected directly into the HEART to treat heart attack patients
Moderna is developing an mRNA injection that will be injected directly into the heart of heart attack and heart failure patients.
The last two vaccines required for school attendance are varicella and polio, both of which require multiple doses over a similar period of time.
The vaccination rate has gradually decreased since the 2019/2020 school year.
Nationally, data from the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found that two-dose MMR coverage was 93 percent, but numbers varied by state.
This was the lowest level of MMR immunization coverage since the 2013-2014 school year, when the average number of fully vaccinated preschool children was 94.7.
In New York, where most preschoolers are fully vaccinated, 98 percent received both shots. But in Alaska, only 78 percent were fully vaccinated.
Scientists say 95 percent of the population should be vaccinated against measles to achieve herd immunity because of its rapid spread.
Herd immunity occurs when a sufficiently large part of a community is immune to a disease that is unlikely to spread further.
Achieving this threshold is crucial to ensure that children who are medically unable to receive vaccinations can still attend school and remain safe.
Data was collected from nearly 4 million children enrolled in preschool — usually between the ages of four and five — in 49 US states and the District of Columbia.
State and local admission requirements require school children in the United States to provide proof of immunization to school nurses at the beginning of each year.
Of the children surveyed, 2.6 percent had an official exemption — 0.2 percent medical and 2.3 percent non-medical — for one or more of the required vaccines.
Medical exceptions to vaccines are relatively rare and are only given when a child has a proven medical contraindication to the vaccine.
These could be very rare cases of a severe allergic reaction to the injection, which only occurs in about 1 in 1 million cases, or an immune deficiency caused by something like HIV, chemotherapy or long-term immunosuppressive therapy.
Nonmedical exceptions for people who object to vaccination based on sincerely held religious beliefs are available in 45 states, while exceptions based on personal, moral, or philosophical beliefs are available in 15 states.
Some states have introduced measures to eliminate exceptions for both religious and personal beliefs in an effort to reduce rapidly declining vaccination rates.
New York, West Virginia, Connecticut, Maine, California, Washington and Mississippi do not allow exemptions from non-medical vaccinations.
Data for the 2021-2022 school year also showed an increase in the number of children not fully vaccinated or officially exempt — a category that now accounts for 3.9 percent of preschool children nationwide.
These non-exempt, non-vaccinated students are often allowed to attend school during a grace period or are provisionally enrolled.
Growing populations of unvaccinated or unvaccinated children, even in larger areas with high immunization coverage, could lead to disease outbreaks, the report warns.
In August, the first polio case in nearly a decade was reported in the United States. The unvaccinated adult was left partially paralyzed by polio after contracting the virus from an international traveler in Rockland County, NY.
The virus was later found in sewage samples from New York City.
Measles, once thought to be an eradicated disease, has also seen a resurgence in the United States this year, with at least 20 cases diagnosed in the upper Midwest.
Since it was declared eradicated in the United States in 2000, the number of unvaccinated American children under the age of two has quadrupled.
As the latest CDC figures indicate, this trend has been exacerbated by pandemic-driven vaccine hesitancy.
Source link
Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
