Don’t ignore the vaccines we already have

How ironic and how disturbing. At a time when most Canadians long for the arrival of an anti-COVID-19 vaccine, parents are increasingly avoiding the existing vaccines that guard against childhood illnesses.

The problem — and it’s a potentially serious one — isn’t a sudden rise in the anti-vaxxer movement. The culprit is none other than COVID-19 and, more specifically, the widespread fears of contracting it.

And that leaves the nation’s public health officials with yet another pressing issue to think about. Fewer child vaccinations today could mean more cases of measles, mumps, whooping cough, rubella, tetanus and chickenpox in the future. That would certainly lead to more ill children. It could also translate into more childhood deaths.

No one wants any of that. The last thing Canada needs is another public health crisis. And the time to ensure this doesn’t happen is now.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, doctors across the country have reported that they’re witnessing a drop in routine child vaccinations. Some the evidence for this trend is anecdotal, which is understandable. Comprehensive records of vaccination rates are rare in most regions of the country.

But in British Columbia, where such data are collected, health officials are reporting a two- to fiveper-cent drop in routine vaccinations in children under the age of two in some regions. In Ottawa, public health officials decided to take action after noting a significant drop in vaccination orders coming from primary care providers.

There’s no single reason behind these trends. Because they fear their children might contract COVID-19, some parents are avoiding going to a doctor’s office or other health care facility for routine child vaccinations. Some doctors have stopped providing the vaccinations because of clinic closings or because they lack the personal protective equipment.

Regardless of why this unwanted trend is happening, what’s not up for debate is the need to challenge and reverse it.

Consider this stark warning from Joanne Langley, a pediatric infectious diseases physician in Halifax: “There shouldn’t be any interruption of children’s routine immunization schedule. It’s very important for maintaining their health and preventing lifethreatening diseases.”

Moving forward, the best way to deal with this problem is a concerted and multipronged drive to get child vaccination rates back up. Ottawa’s public health officials worked with the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario to start a clinic specifically for families who were having a hard time getting their children vaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Canadian Paediatric Society is suggesting doctors and nurses can protect themselves against COVID-19 by screening patients over the telephone and setting up special times of the day for vaccinations. Those are all good options.

And while Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, is working overtime to control the COVID-19 pandemic, it would be appropriate for her to use her regular, public forum to remind everyone how essential child vaccinations are.

Of course, all the good work and efforts on the parts of health officials will be meaningless if parents fail to do their part. The mothers and fathers of young children are already stressed out trying to get themselves and their families safely through the pandemic. Work schedules have been upended. Schools have been closed. And somehow keeping COVID-19 at bay is always on their minds. But they should consider why the world yearns for a COVID-19 vaccine. And they should remember the young lives that can be saved by tried and true vaccines already at hand.