Drop in routine childhood vaccinations during coronavirus may spur increase in preventable illness, CDC warns

A marked decline in routine childhood vaccinations during the coronavirus pandemic may lead to an increase in preventable diseases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned on Thursday.

The data indicated a decline across all vaccinations among all age groups compared to years prior. In children aged 2-8 years, MMR vaccination declined 63.1%. Among adolescents aged 13-17 years, HPV vaccination declined 71.3%, while Tdap vaccination among children aged 9-12 saw a 66.5% decline. During June-September 2020, the number of weekly routine pediatric doses administered increased, but none translated to pre-pandemic levels.  "This lag in catch-up vaccination might pose a serious public health threat that would result in vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks, especially in schools that have reopened for in-person learning," the CDC stated. "During the past few decades, the United States has achieved a substantial reduction in the prevalence of vaccine-preventable diseases driven in large part to the ongoing administration of routinely recommended pediatric vaccines."