Childhood vaccinations in the United States haven't recovered from pandemic slump, study shows
Childhood vaccinations have not recovered from the slump that happened after the pandemic, according to new research.
This comes as the United States deals with one of the largest measles outbreaks in the past decade, and much of it is blamed on parents not getting their children vaccinated
As measles cases continue to increase in Texas and New Mexico, there's growing concern about vaccine hesitancy.
"Unfortunately, post-pandemic rates of childhood vaccination have not bounced back," said Dr. Celine Gounder, who is a medical contributor at CBS News.
Measles is among the highly contagious diseases that can be prevented with a vaccine. Overall, vaccinations among children declined during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, new research in "Pediatrics" shows immunization rates for some illnesses remain lower than pre-pandemic levels.
"What we saw in this study, about 400,000 or so babies, looking at their vaccination rates at by age 5 months, those have declined over the course of the pandemic from about 88% coverage down to 81% coverage by 2023," Gounder said. "And by 12 months of age, these kids had still not caught up."
The study focused on the rotavirus vaccine, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, or whooping cough vaccine, and the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.
"We're concerned in particular about certain groups that are lagging behind, including babies of color, people who are low-income and on Medicaid and families that may not speak English as a first language," Gounder said. "This is an issue because even tiny dips in vaccination rates can leave communities susceptible to outbreaks."
There have been a couple of recent cases of measles in Philadelphia at Children's Hospital. Two infections were in babies under the age of 1 – too young to be vaccinated — who traveled internationally.
Locally, there's also been an increase in whooping cough infections. Doctors say that's because the vaccine protection for those can wear off, and boosters are recommended for many.
The U.S. confirmed at least a dozen deaths from whooping cough last year, according to CDC data. That's the highest number of deaths from the bacterial infection since 2017.
