This article was posted on WCMU Public Radio. Read the full article here.
Public health messaging has taken a hit since the pandemic.
The politicization COVID-19, misinformation, and an overall distrust with public institutions is making public health officials worried.
During the pandemic more people were staying home and not going to the doctor for routine medical care.
Now, years since COVID began, there are spillover effects that affect things like routine childhood immunizations.
“It’s the perfect storm for us to see outbreaks and clusters of vaccine preventable illnesses,” Michigan’s chief medical executive Doctor Natasha Bagdasarian said.
Polio, mumps, and measles cases are possible as the state has seen a ten percent drop in preventable vaccine illness coverage for children between 19 and 35 months old.
Bagdasarian said this is an issue that adults have not had to deal with in decades due to herd immunity.
The more people that are vaccinated, the less likely it is for disease to spread.
With measles cases being reported across the United States, Bagdasarian said parents should make sure their child’s vaccination records are up to date.
She said access to a school district’s vaccination data is also available on the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services website.
“It’s unfortunate now that our kids could be faced with diseases that we had been able to really minimize,” Bagdasarian said.