Pediatricians pivot to vaccines on the go as immunization rates drop during the pandemic

Pediatricians pivot to vaccines on the go as immunization rates drop As routine immunizations for children in the U.S. plummeted during the pandemic, efforts have sprung up to help close the gap. Rebecca Sohn STAT

At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Eileen Costello, the chief of ambulatory pediatrics at Boston Medical Center, had been forced to reduce patient visits by 90%. Even so, she tried to keep all appointments with kids to get their routine vaccinations for diseases such as measles, mumps, and whooping cough.

“We moved heaven and earth to book the kids in person who were due for a vaccine,” said Costello, who is also a clinical professor at Boston University School of Medicine. “But it became evident that parents weren’t going to come. They were too afraid.”

So Costello got creative: With a van donated by a local ambulance company, she and her colleagues put together a mobile vaccination vehicle, with a gurney as an exam table and an improvised freezer system featuring frozen water bottles to keep the vaccines cold. All week, the van brings pediatricians, often a child’s typical doctor, to patient neighborhoods; as a safety net hospital with most pediatric patients on public insurance, the van often heads to underserved areas in and around Boston. 

As routine vaccinations of children in the U.S. plummeted during the pandemic, efforts like BMC’s have sprung up around the country to help close the gap.

A CDC study in May that examined data from two different federal vaccination programs between January and April 2020 found that childhood immunizations dropped sharply from mid-March to late April when Covid-19 was deemed a pandemic and the U.S. declared a national emergency.

During that period, providers ordered 2.5 million fewer doses of regular childhood vaccines — not including those for influenza — and 250,000 fewer doses of vaccines containing measles protection, compared to the same period the previous year. On the state level, childhood vaccine doses in Massachusetts declined by 68% in the first two weeks of April, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and from Michigan to Ohio to Wisconsin, fewer vaccines were administered.  ...