ROUTINE CHILDHOOD VACCINATIONS SLIPPED IN U.S. DURING PANDEMIC

Kindergartners in the United States fell behind on routine childhood vaccinations during the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday, a slide that experts attributed to skipped checkups and to resistance to COVID-19 shots spilling into unease about other vaccines.

During the 2020-21 school year, about 94 percent of kindergartners had the required vaccines, a drop of roughly 1 percentage point from the previous school year, the CDC said. That pulled coverage levels below the target of 95 percent, raising fears that life-threatening childhood illnesses like measles could at some point become more prevalent.

“This means there are 35,000 more children in the United States during this time period without documentation of complete vaccination against common diseases,” Dr. Georgina Peacock, acting director of the CDC’S immunization services division, said at a news conference Thursday. “This is further evidence of how pandemic-related disruptions to education and health care could have lingering consequences for children.”

Enrollment in kindergarten had also fallen by around 10 percent, Peacock said, meaning that about 400,000 additional children who had been expected to start school but did not may also have fallen behind on routine vaccinations.

Some states showed dramatic declines in coverage, while others held steadier. Maryland, for instance, reported a roughly 10 percent drop in coverage with the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine from the 2019-20 school year to 2020-21 among kindergartners. Wisconsin, Georgia, Wyoming and Kentucky all reported declines of around 5 percent.

Idaho had among the lowest levels of coverage during the 2020-21 school year with the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, at 86.5 percent.

The CDC said that coverage had fallen in a majority of states. Nationally, vaccination coverage fell slightly below 94 percent for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine; the diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis vaccine; and for the varicella vaccine, the CDC said. The United States had already very nearly lost its status as a country that had eliminated measles in 2019, when the country experienced an unusually high number of measles outbreaks.

CDC scientists ascribed the coverage declines in part to missed well-child checkups, which pediatricians said some families were avoiding during the pandemic out of fear of coming into contact with children with COVID-19. The agency said that disruptions to schooling, including heavy demands on school nurses, could also have contributed to reduced vaccinations.

Pediatricians said that those issues had also collided with growing levels of antivaccine misinformation aimed at the coronavirus shots, which they said had prompted more resistance to ordinary vaccines, too. financial standing; the district expects to get off the state watch list by the next time school districts report their finances to the county.

“It’s definitely not what we want to do, but when the state doesn’t fund schools adequately, then we have to make difficult decisions to be able to live within our budget,” Garcia said.

Several school district officials said they are hoping the state will come through with school funding reforms that will alleviate their districts’ deficits. They have been asking the state to change its funding formula to be based on enrollment, rather than attendance, as well as to use a three-year average of enrollment or attendance figures to soften the blow of the pandemic-induced drop in students attending school. School officials also said they hope the state will raise base school funding in general.

Dehesa Superintendent Bradley Johnson said he is planning to use a solar grant to generate renewable energy and use state learningloss aid to build school enrichment programs, which he hopes will attract more students to come to Dehesa.

“If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is to stay calm and not make knee-jerk reactions,” Johnson said in an email. “If the above solutions do not allow us to completely correct the structural deficit, we will be thoughtful in how we implement further cost solutions for our district.”