The Pennsylvania Department of Health quietly announced late last month that it was temporarily suspending requirements for children’s immunizations, a move that could send mixed signals to parents about the importance of preventing disease, and could mark a return for vaccine-preventable diseases like measles, doctors fear.
The coronavirus pandemic has made it difficult for families to make scheduled checkups. In Philadelphia, routine immunizations have fallen substantially since March. As a result, many children in Pennsylvania may not have the required immunizations to enter and attend school this fall.
Under Pennsylvania regulations, children who do not meet the list of required immunizations for their grade — which includes but is not limited to measles, mumps, and whooping cough (pertussis) — should be excluded from school activities, and schools are required to verify that children obtain their vaccinations, except in cases of medical exceptions. Furthermore, children enrolled in a child-care program must maintain updated immunizations.
However, these regulations are suspended for a two-month period after the beginning of the school year or the beginning of enrollment in an early childhood education program, according to a Health Department news release.
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“It’s going to take time to catch everyone up, and we don’t want to hold back children because they’re not up-to-date within five days” after starting school,” Tirmal said.
However, some pediatricians are concerned about the repercussions of the suspension, including the potential for further immunization delays.
“I lived through the measles outbreak in the 1990s. It was devastating,” said Trude Haecker, a pediatrician and president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“I was surprised to see [the suspension]. We have immunizations to prevent certain infectious diseases, but I fear they will come back again,” Haecker said.
The state Health Department said that the suspension is only in response to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the availability of immunizations before the start of the school year. But providers