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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused millions of children around the world to miss routine immunizations, according to a new scientific report. With children under 12 still not eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, a significant percentage of younger children will return to school in the fall with vulnerabilities to several diseases.
The first report, published in The Lancet, estimated that 8.5 million more children than expected missed doses of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine, which protects against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus, and an additional 8.9 million children missed their first dose of measles vaccine.
“Although the latest coverage trajectories point to an upturn in some areas, a combination of overdue catch-up immunization services, continued transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and persistent gaps in immunization coverage before the pandemic still left gaps. million under-vaccinated or unvaccinated children. against preventable diseases at the end of 2020, and these gaps are expected to expand through 2021, ”the researchers wrote. (SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19.)
The new report coincides with an official Food and Drug Administration bulletin on Thursday indicating that authorization for emergency use of COVID-19 vaccines in children under 12 is not expected to occur until the onset or middle of winter.
A study published in the journal Pediatrics earlier this week also found that childhood vaccinations “declined markedly” after the pandemic took hold in the United States in 2020. Study states.
It is important to note that most public school districts nationwide require that routine childhood immunizations be performed before a child can attend in-person classes. Some, however, have medical and religious exemptions.
Overall, the news is raising questions about sending young children back to school in the fall and the risks they may face. However, many parents and physicians agree that children should resume in-person learning in the fall.
“Send them back,” mother of three Mindy McMillan Saponaro, who works as a paraprofessional at a school in Maryland, told Yahoo Life. “My son started in September four days a week; my daughters soon after. I have been working in schools since last October, when I was hired full time, and [am] currently working at summer school. ”
Another mom of three, Jen Reynolds Matta, who lives in Delaware, agrees. “At this point in the pandemic, I think we as a country need to focus more of our attention on student mental health,” she told Yahoo Life. “School isn’t just about books and learning, it’s about building relationships and forming friendships, it’s about learning to work in groups and compromise or share, and it’s about giving students a safe and open environment to communicate their needs and wants. Kids need to be in school. “
But doctors say school may not have returned to normal yet. “Back to school will be like the previous spring – what schools used to do will likely continue,” Dr. Daniel Ganjian, a pediatrician at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, told Yahoo Life.
A father of school-aged children himself, he says this is likely to happen even if the COVID-19 vaccine is cleared earlier than expected, noting that “it would take time” for enough children be vaccinated to have a noticeable impact.
An infectious disease expert, Amesh A. Adalja, a senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told Yahoo Life that it is possible for children to return to school safely. “We have had data from the pre-vaccine era on how safe in-person schooling can be done,” he says. “Now it can be done even more safely with a certain proportion of the vaccinated population.”
Adalja says schools “will need to be aware of their local conditions, in terms of vaccination rates, as well as the rate of spread in the community and adapt accordingly.” But, he adds, “the default should be in-person learning.”
Dr Richard Watkins, an infectious disease physician and professor of internal medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University, agrees, telling Yahoo Life that “children who are not vaccinated should wear masks and try to distance themselves socially. as much as possible”.
Dr Rosemary Olivero, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which also has school-aged children, told Yahoo Life there is still time for parents to vaccinate their children. “For routine children’s immunizations, we need to make sure that those required for school entry – measles, mumps, chickenpox, etc. – are up to date before the start of the school year,” she says. . “These have fallen on the minds of many, with so much emphasis on the novel coronavirus. But, says Olivero, “Routine childhood immunizations are extremely important in preventing outbreaks of other infectious diseases in the classroom.
“If your child is late for their wellness visits, we strongly recommend that you schedule them during the summer months,” she says. “Vaccinating so many of the eligible population against COVID will make classrooms much safer for children and staff, and will promote the spread of disease and the closure of rooms or schools. “
Dr Jill Weatherhead, assistant professor of infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told Yahoo Life it is important for parents to do what they can to make sure their children are as protected as possible. “Parents should check that their children are up to date with their routine immunizations,” she says. “If they are not up to date, make an appointment with the pediatrician to receive all age-appropriate vaccines before school starts. Routine vaccinations are important not only to protect your children from disease. preventable by vaccination, but also to keep the community protected by herd immunity.
“If routine childhood immunization rates decline, we could see the reappearance of previously controlled infections, such as measles,” she adds. “It is a particularly dangerous situation for young people [children] who are not old enough to be vaccinated, and children who cannot be vaccinated or have a reduced response to vaccines, such as children who have cancer or are taking immunosuppressive drugs, because these groups of children can have very bad results. “
While children under the age of 12 cannot yet get the COVID-19 vaccine, Weatherhead offers this advice: “Make sure all eligible people in your household and those your children come into contact with have received their COVID vaccine. This, she explains, is called “vaccine cocooning” and is done “to protect unvaccinated children.”
Adalja emphasizes the importance of in-person learning. “Children have suffered throughout this pandemic, not because of what the virus has done to them, but because of what adult and teacher unions have done to them,” he says. Yet, he adds, “it will also be essential to keep an eye on other vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles and chickenpox, as vaccination rates have fallen.”
Kids can see a more normal school year at one point, says Ganjian – it’s just not likely to be September. “Once we see the numbers go down and more children get vaccinated, we can start to be more relaxed,” he says.
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