SEATTLE — The Washington State Department of Health has observed a significant drop in the number of children being vaccinated over the past two months.
State health experts say children still need vaccines on time, even during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, The Seattle Times reported Tuesday.
About 30 percent fewer children were vaccinated in March and about 40 percent fewer in April compared to the average number of childhood vaccinations administered during those months between 2015 and 2019, the health department said.
Officials are concerned children will not be protected against diseases such as measles and pertussis, state Health Officer Dr. Kathy Lofy said.
“Decreasing vaccinations increases the risk that we could see an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease,” Lofy said.
Dr. John Dunn, Kaiser Permanente Washington’s director of preventive care, said people do not normally experience the effects of diphtheria or measles because they received vaccines years ago.
Not having seen the diseases firsthand is no reason for parents to think the vaccinations can be skipped during a health crisis like the new coronavirus, Dunn said.
The most recent example in Washington was a measles outbreak that sickened more than 70 people last year in Clark County, where only 85 percent of kindergartners had received the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
Nearly all the county’s cases were in children and people who were not immunized, with 93 percent of the cases involving patients between the ages of 1 and 18.
