Hospital leaders urge vaccinations to protect children as COVID-19 cases surge in Michigan
The current spread in Michigan has occurred largely in schools and in youth sports, promoting hospital leaders to speak out.
(Photo by FG Trade/Getty Images)
Michigan is currently experiencing a rise in COVID-19 cases, and in response, leaders from 14 hospitals in the state have published a letter urging the public to get vaccines for children who aren't able to, citing the high number of children who have been infected during the current surge.
The letter paints a dire picture for those under the age of 16, who have been placed on ventilators in large numbers and in some extreme cases have even undergone amputation. Among other complications, children who have contracted the coronavirus are at an increased risk for severe multisystem inflammatory syndrome, whether or not they're symptomatic.
Currently, federal guidelines prohibit children in that age group from getting COVID-19 vaccines due to the prioritization of other age groups, including the elderly. But the current spread in Michigan has occurred largely in schools and in youth sports, promoting hospital leaders to speak out.
What the letter urged the public to do is to make the individual choice to get vaccinated, which officials said can protect the people around them and help keep children out of quarantine.
"We are just as fatigued and ready for a new normal as you are," the letter stated. "As the health experts, we are urging (you) to help us get there and keep everyone in the community -- especially our kids -- safe and healthy. Get tested, especially after travel; wear a mask in public; avoid large gatherings; limit time with those outside of your household; wash hands often and well; get vaccinated as soon as possible."
The letter also said that pediatric depression rates are rising, while well-child visits and childhood vaccination rates are on the decline.
"Positively, vaccines prove to be more than 99% effective in preventing illness, hospitalizations, and deaths in Michigan," the letter stated. "That said, we are in a race against aggressive variants that increase the risk of hospitalizations for both adults and children. We want to protect everyone, including kids, as they are not immune to COVID-19 and its long-term complications."
WHAT'S THE IMPACT
The broader goal for the U.S. is to achieve herd immunity, by which a critical mass of the population becomes inoculated against the virus, thereby slowing its spread and containing it. To that end, the Biden administration unveiled a new goal this week: getting 70% of adults at least one vaccine dose, and 160 million Americans fully vaccinated, by July 4.
The plan is to shift the focus to accessibility, with same-day and walk-in vaccinations becoming the norm as opposed to scrambling and fighting for coveted appointment slots. The U.S. will also redirect resources from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to establish more mobile and pop-up vaccination clinics, and will ship new allocations of the vaccine to rural health clinics.
Part of the plan will be a push to begin vaccinating the nation's adolescents as soon as a vaccine gets authorization for that age group from the Food and Drug Administration and is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That particular effort is intended to ensure adolescents are vaccinated by the beginning of the school year in the fall, and will entail more vaccines being available in more places, with a focus on pediatricians and family physicians.
THE LARGER TREND
Aso this week, the Biden Administration said it will support the waiver of intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines, allowing developing nations to produce vaccines created by pharmaceutical companies in an effort to further limit the spread of the coronavirus.
The policy would effectively suspend the IP rights of vaccine manufacturers, thereby enabling companies in developing countries to manufacture their own versions of COVID-19 vaccines, which activists have said could expedite global vaccine production. The move received pushback from the pharmaceutical industry, though, with Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America president and CEO Stephen J. Ubl saying it would undermine the global response to the pandemic and compromise safety.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the current seven-day moving average of daily new cases (52,528) decreased 16.2% compared with the previous seven-day moving average (62,653). Compared with the highest peak on January 8 (249,669), the current seven-day average decreased 79.0%.
A total of 32,031,068 COVID-19 cases have been reported as of April 28.
Twitter: @JELagasse
Email the writer: jeff.lagasse@himssmedia.com
