The chief medical advisor to Joe Biden has issued a warning that the demonization of Covid-19 vaccinations could expand to kid vaccination programmes and result in disease outbreaks.
According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, political differences in public health are blocking a “laser-beam focus” on the coronavirus, a common enemy. Some US states were not supporting Covid vaccination, while Congress was withholding billions of dollars of money, both of which were restricting the national response to the pandemic, he claimed.
“I’m concerned,” Fauci told FT, “that the acceleration of an anti-vaxxer attitude in certain segments of the population . . . might spill over into that kind of a negative attitude towards childhood vaccinations, which would be very tragic.”
“If you fall back on vaccines against common vaccine-preventable childhood diseases,” said Fauci as cited by the FT, “that’s where you wind up getting avoidable and unnecessary outbreaks”.
Following the discovery of poliovirus in wastewater in many counties, the state of New York declared a crisis last week. In July, doctors in Rockland, New York, identified the country’s first case of paralytic polio in ten years. The county’s two-year-old poliovirus vaccination rate is only 60%, well below the 95% threshold required for herd immunity.
Rockland also experienced a measles outbreak in 2018-2019, which sickened 312 people and was linked to the county’s poor measles vaccination rates.
In July, the World Health Organization released data that showed that Covid had caused the biggest long-term drop in childhood vaccinations in the world in 30 years. However, a recent analysis suggests that between 2020 and 2021, US coverage rates for the most important childhood immunizations will only decline by 1%.
However, the Biden administration is worried that the significant political differences that have slowed down the distribution of Covid vaccines in the US may fuel the propagation of anti-vax sentiments. Only a third of Americans have had a booster shot, and only two-thirds of Americans have received two Covid shots, well below the coverage rate in most other industrialized nations.
To increase public faith in vaccinations and public health, public health officials need to step up efforts to combat false information on social media and improve communication, according to Dr. Fauci. He urged Congress and state governments to “pull together” in support of initiatives to stop the epidemic and improve public health, including vaccine programmes.
Fauci did not mention any state governments or politicians who are said to have fueled anti-vaccine sentiment, despite the fact that he has become the target of Republican criticism of the government’s Covid response.
However, a number of medical professionals and health experts have slammed well-known Republican governors for spearheading initiatives to stop vaccine mandates, notably Greg Abbott in Texas and Ron DeSantis in Florida.
DeSantis allegedly asserted that children had “zero chance of getting anything” when he rejected Covid vaccinations for kids in June.
Fauci claimed that political attacks were not the driving force for his decision to resign as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in December. He said he really wants to use his experience to “lecture, write and get involved in projects that inspire the younger generation of scientists.”
Image Credit: Getty
You were reading: “I’m Concerned”: US May Face New “Avoidable And Unnecessary Outbreaks” – Fauci