Lagging vaccine rates, and not just for COVID, worry area physicians
Sometimes lost in worries about COVID-19 and the variants are other health issues that are becoming a concern for area doctors.
Vaccinations, not just for COVID-19, and specifically for kids headed back to school for fall, are lagging, according to Dr. Michael Alston, a pediatrician who works at Kaiser Permanente’s Tacoma Medical Center.
“During the pandemic, the studies from the Centers for Disease Control showed a significant drop in vaccines in all age groups, pediatrics, with particular drops in school-aged and adolescent age group,” he told The News Tribune in a recent phone interview.
That CDC report, issued in June, included data from Washington state, one of 10 jurisdictions examined.
“Those recovered somewhat last fall but have still not recovered to pre-pandemic levels,” Alston added.
That’s a problem.
“We know that if a certain threshold of our population is unvaccinated, that these diseases that used to be rare in the United States can become present again, and that’s when we have outbreaks of things like measles,” said Dr. Nicole Johnson with UW Medicine’s Kent-Des Moines Neighborhood Clinic, in a recent UW push to get the word out about getting kids vaccinated.
By state law, children attending public school are required to be immunized against diseases including measles, whooping cough, chickenpox and tetanus.
According to the state Department of Health’s vaccine information page, “Exemptions may be claimed for personal/philosophical, religious or medical reasons. Measles, mumps, and rubella may not be exempted for personal/philosophical reasons.”
Other shots not mandated, including the COVID vaccine and the annual flu shots, also need attention from families, said Alston. Flu shots should be available starting in September.
“They don’t mandate all of the vaccines that are included on the standard schedule from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control,” Alston said. “So there are some vaccines that are very important for child health, such as the influenza vaccine or for our teens, meningococcal vaccine and the human papillomavirus vaccine.”
“That’s where it’s really important to check in with your health care provider because we can help families see where there might be gaps in their current immunizations.”
The CDC recently changed its guidance to allow for the Pfizer COVID vaccine to be given to children ages 12 and over alongside other shots.
“The vaccines are all approved to be given together. So there’s no contraindication to having the COVID vaccine, together with other pediatric vaccines for the appropriate age group,” Alston told The News Tribune.
Alston’s advice to families: “Call your doctor, call your pediatrician and just chat through it with them and talk about what options are available.”
As for his own office, “We are amenable to having different schedules with families, depending on their comfort level. And I think we really want to make sure, first and foremost, that families are just re-engaging with the health care system” after the months of pandemic isolation, he said.
“I really encourage families to consider the range of pathogens and infections that are out there,” he added. “I have seen patients who are in the 12 and older age group, who have now been eligible for (COVID) vaccination for several months, and getting infected.”
He noted that “similar to what’s being seen across the country, the infections that I’m seeing right now are all in unvaccinated patients.”
“I’ve had some children in my practice, who were asymptomatic and only found out because of an exposure to a family member and from getting tested. And, I’ve also had other patients who ended up in the intensive care unit up in Seattle Children’s Hospital with heart inflammation.”
