Childhood immunizations have dropped during COVID-19
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on across the country, medical and public health experts have voiced concerns that routine medical care — including childhood immunizations — have dropped off in the past several months.
A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found a steep decrease in the number of vaccines ordered after the president declared a national emergency. Shelby County has seen the same downward trend.
While local infectious disease experts have said that the drop in immunizations is not cause for immediate alarm, they stressed the importance of childhood vaccinations and said a sustained decrease could lead to a drop below the level needed for herd immunity in the future. And if the vaccination drop continues into the fall and winter months, and fewer students get flu shots, it could pose another set of problems for kids, families and schools.
Local school districts have said, barring a directive from the state relaxing immunization requirements, students will be expected to provide proof of vaccinations to enroll.
The state requires children enrolling in daycare or preschool, kindergarten and seventh grade, students who have moved from out of state and students at Tennessee colleges and universities to provide proof of immunization for multiple diseases. Exemptions can be issued for religious or medical reasons.
Many of the measures that all the local school districts will be taking come fall — use of personal protective equipment, designated hand-washing times, increased cleaning, daily health screenings — will help prevent the spread of infectious diseases, but there is no way to completely eliminate transmission of COVID-19 or any other infectious disease in a school setting. A state department of health school reopening guide published in June did not mention routine immunizations.
Dr. Steve Threlkeld, co-chair of the infection control program at Baptist Memorial Hospital-memphis, said the Baptist system has seen declines in routine childhood immunizations, as well as other types of preventative care, emergency room visits and cancer treatments.
He said the dip in vaccinations was not as much of a problem in Memphis as it could be in other parts of the country, which have seen outbreaks of measles and other infectious diseases in recent years as vaccination rates have dropped and put the larger population closer to dropping below herd immunity levels and endangering people who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons. However, he said it was concerning.
“That’s a crucial thing, we don’t want one problem to leapfrog over and create another problem that we’ve already solved, or largely solved,” he said. “To be sure, we need to make sure that our kids are vaccinated.”
Threlkeld said many people alive today have never lived in a world where their siblings or friends were killed by diseases like diphtheria, whooping cough or polio that aren’t a part of American daily life anymore, thanks to vaccines.
“We take that for granted and our grandparents, great-grandparents would be rolling in their graves knowing that we were not getting the vaccinations done (for diseases) that wreaked such havoc in their childhoods,” he said.
Lakeland School System Superintendent Ted Horrell said the district has been in close contact with the Shelby County Health Department as the district charts a map for what a return to in-person schooling would look like. Those discussions have not included possible exemptions from vaccination policies.
“In the absence of any changes to state statute or local guidelines, we are operating under the assumption that parents will continue to be responsible for having children immunized and providing proof to the schools,” he said.
Horrell said vaccination records for many new and returning students in the Lakeland School System were filed during the online spring registration period in March. For students who did not have records filed, the system’s registered nurses and medical records clerks will follow up with their families before school begins.
Shelby County Schools Chief of Communications Jerica Phillips said that prior to school closures in March, 99% of the district’s students were in compliance with vaccination requirements. In the past year, SCS has tightened its immunization tracking policies and helped host vaccination pop-up clinics in partnership with the Well Child Clinic, the county health department and community groups.
“The district will be continually reviewing records of returning students this summer and sending calls and texts to remind families of immunization requirements for enrollment this fall,” Phillips said.