Childhood vaccination rates plunge amid coronavirus, likely setting up another health crisis

The coronavirus is producing yet another potentially deadly side effect.

COVID-19 has parents skipping their children's regular doctor's visits — and skipping out on essential vaccinations as a result. Vaccination rates have fallen as much as 73 percent from the beginning of the pandemic, exacerbating the risk of children catching these diseases once they return to school and the rest of the world, The New York Times reports.

While official vaccination records from the past two months aren't available yet, "anecdotal evidence and subsets of data are alarming," the Times writes. PCC, which manages electronic records for pediatricians nationwide, collected data from 1,000 independent pediatricians and compared their vaccination rates from the week of Feb. 16 to the week of April 5. Measles, mumps, and rubella vaccinations dropped 50 percent during that time, diphtheria and whooping cough shots fell 42 percent, and HPV vaccines plunged 73 percent, the data showed.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Individual states have reported sinking vaccinations as well, with Massachusetts' health department reporting doses distributed under a federal program for uninsured patients dropped 68 percent in the first two weeks of April. Minnesota said its doses of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines under the Vaccines for Children program dropped 71 percent toward the end of March.

Whether those falling rates stem from clinic closures or personal choice, they're only adding to an ongoing crisis — usually avoidable diseases such as measles saw deadly outbreaks last year as parents chose to avoid vaccines. Read more at The New York Times.