The report uses Michigan as a case study, but that doesn't necessarily suggest the state is worse than the others when it comes to vaccines. The results, for example, come less than two weeks after another CDC report showed that childhood immunizations have plunged across the United States since the start of the pandemic.
In this earlier report, the CDC reported a "noticeable decrease" in the number of vaccines ordered under a federal program that immunizes half of all children in the United States. Unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children will be at risk of other infectious diseases in addition to the coronavirus, had warned the CDC. The new report looked at Michigan's vaccine information system earlier this month and found that the number of doses of non-flu vaccine given to children has decreased by 22% overall. Vaccine doses in children under two years of age have decreased by 16%.
Less than half of 5-month-olds were up to date on their vaccines in May, the study found. Typically, about two-thirds of them are.
Children enrolled in Medicaid, a program for low-income Americans, also had lower vaccination rates. Among children 7 months old, for example, only 35% of children enrolled in Medicaid were up to date on their vaccines. This is compared to 55% of children not enrolled in the program.
"The observed decline in immunization coverage could make young children and communities vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles," wrote Cristi Bramer and colleagues from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Immunization Action Coalition in Minnesota and the Children's Hospital of Creme Philadelphia.
They noted that measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus can make access to health services more difficult. Some services can be replaced by telemedicine, they said, but vaccines require in-person visits.
"Strategies to maintain immunization services include providing specific clinics, rooms or buildings for patient visits and well visits; reducing the number of patients on site at all times; closing waiting rooms or check-in areas, and recording patients by phone and getting vaccinations from their vehicles in the parking lot, "the researchers wrote.
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