This article appeared on Cincinnati.com. Read the full story here.
Among its many effects, the coronavirus pandemic is putting children across the Cincinnati area and the nation behind schedule for vaccinations. Federal and local data show decreases in the numbers of children who came into primary care centers for the shots that protect them against highly spreadable diseases such as measles and whooping cough.
Here are five shutdown-driven lessons about vaccines.
1. Risks are rising for other outbreaks
Local officials say it’s too early for complete Cincinnati-area data, but they point to worrisome national numbers showing immunization rates dropped significantly in 2020 over 2019.
Vaccination rates at Hamilton County Health Department centers dropped by nearly half in the first five months of 2020 over the same period in 2019, to 210 from 416.
The Northern Kentucky Health Department found similar drop-offs at its four health centers. In Campbell County, vaccinations between March and May were down 40% from the same period in 2019. In Kenton County, they were down 39%, in Grant County down 24% and in Boone County down 17%.
Officials at the Cincinnati Health Department said they did not yet have vaccination data through the pandemic.
PCC, an electronic health records company for pediatricians, compared one week’s immunizations in February with one in April. The doses of the vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella dropped by 50%. Vaccinations against diphtheria and pertussis were down 42%, for the human papillomavirus down 73%.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a drop in doses as well. But Dr. Nicole Baldwin, a primary care provider in Mason and Blue Ash, said that report simply showed that many doctors such as she simply did not purchase vaccine doses because they had so few patients.
Still, the federal report troubles Dr. Nick DeBlasio, director of the pediatric primary care center at Cincinnati Children Hospital Medical Center. Usually, the center sees about 150 patients a day, but during the shutdown, “We had a low of 20 visits per day, a huge decrease. It’s kind of slowly building back up to now we’re seeing around 70 or 80 kids a day.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics issued an alarm to parents last month. Yet without a big rise in vaccinations quickly, DeBlasio said, the school year will begin in the fall with not enough children will have immunity to contagious diseases, which could allow outbreaks in schools or communities.
2. The projection from vaccines isn’t magic
“Herd immunity” against an infectious disease doesn’t just happen. It takes effort. DeBlasio and other experts say vaccination rates need to be close to 95% to ensure everyone in the “herd” is protected, especially people whose vulnerable health prohibits vaccination, including infants, the elderly and the chronically ill.
In Ohio, vaccination against mumps, measles and rubella last hit 95% in 2014 and has been well below 90% since. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 2019 was the nation’s worst year of measles outbreaks since 1992. Most of last year’s cases were connected to an outbreak in New York state.
“As we’ve seen vaccination rates drop, we can’t rely on this herd immunity,” DeBlasio said. “There is a lot of worry: Are we going to start to see these vaccine-preventable diseases increase?”
Dr. Denise Warrick, an Anderson Township primary-care provider and TriHealth’s associate medical director for pediatrics, said she is hopeful that as the school year approaches, “Parents are ultimately going to do what’s best for their children, and (vaccinations) are one of the best ways to do best by your child.”
3. Reminder: Viruses move quickly
A key lesson of the pandemic, local caregivers say, is the refresher course on vaccines as a change agent in human life. People forgot about that, until the new coronavirus appeared in November in Wuhan, China, and spread around the globe in four months.
Baldwin is a social-media-savvy pediatrician whose TikTok video in January promoting vaccination drew thousands of views. The video also elicited objections from people who are hesitant about vaccines. At the height, Deerfield Township police came to Baldwin’s office when callers harassed her staff workers, with one threatening to ‘shut the practice down.”
Baldwin said what resistance to vaccines she once heard has fallen away with the pandemic.
“Vaccines are a consequence of their own success,” she said. “I will never think of this pandemic or this coronavirus as good, but I do think one thing has come through. The world is seeing what happens when we’re faced with a virus that is deadly to so many people and we don’t have a vaccine to prevent it.”
4. Vaccines take a long time to create
“Oh, my gosh, every single day: ‘When is it coming out?’ ” Baldwin described her patients’ eagerness. Warrick, too, said parents are curious about a coronavirus vaccine.
Federal and Ohio government officials have repeatedly said a vaccine for the coronavirus could be ready in 18 months, and the first clinical trials in human beings are underway, including at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
But plenty of unforeseen problems can crop up in making a vaccine, and no vaccine will available before school beings in the fall. Warrick said that until a vaccine is available, the pandemic has reinforced fundamental virus-fighting. “It reminds us to go back to basic protections like hand washing, basic hygiene procedures, that can be really important against the spread of disease.”
5. Act now to ‘catch up’ on missed shots
The major cause of the falloff in vaccinations through the shutdown is that many parents apparently believed all medical offices were closed. Primary care practices, however, were always open. Local doctors said their repeatedly disinfected offices are racing to reschedule patients, in socially distant ways, to get them caught up.
Come the fall, school nurses will have to follow up with parents, said Kelly Wagner, president of the Ohio School Nurses Association and a school nurse in Delaware County. She recommends that parents:
- Call your child’s doctor now and schedule a well visit or at least call your local health department to get your child vaccinated.
- Keep the appointment.
- Get a copy of your child’s immunization record for yourself, then make one for your child’s school. Don’t assume the doctor’s staff will do that for you.