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Over the past three years, COVID-19 has directly touched every aspect of our society, including children. Although less severe in children than adults, COVID-19 is now the fifth-leading cause of disease-related death among those under 19 years old. Yet, as the pandemic and its direct effects on children are easing, there are other concerns that the medical community must contend with—a problem, in large part, due to the spillover effects of misinformation and politics on pediatrics.
Today we are seeing long-established norms of basic pediatric practice being discredited and ignored, and a concerning rise in vaccine and pediatric misinformation. In 2019 alone, childhood vaccinations prevented more than 24 million cases of vaccine-preventable diseases in the U.S. But over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the anti-vaccine movement has greatly escalated its generalized anti-pediatric vaccine attacks. This misinformation spread is having real consequences for the public: The number of parents who believe that they should be able to decide not to immunize their school-age children, even if being unvaccinated creates health risk for other children, nearly doubled between 2019 and 2022, to about 30%.
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It is worrisome that rates of vaccination for young children in some areas of the U.S. have now fallen below levels needed for population immunity. In January 2023, an outbreak of measles in Ohio in more than 80 under-vaccinated children resulted in nearly 40% of them being hospitalized. In the past, there would have been public outrage if this occurred. But in 2023, the public response to the outbreak was muted.
Rather than recognizing the established pediatric wisdom that consistently speaks in evidence-based support of immunization, we are now seeing…
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