The world will be reeling from the unintended consequences of the long-term implementation of COVID-restrictions, especially those impacting access to routine medical care.
Now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning that there is a possibility of significant measles outbreaks around the world because an estimated 22 million infants missed measles vaccines because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We must act now to strengthen disease surveillance systems and close immunity gaps, before travel and trade return to pre-pandemic levels, to prevent deadly measles outbreaks and mitigate the risk of other vaccine-preventable diseases,” Kevin Cain, global immunization director for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a prepared statement issued Wednesday.Specifically, disease detection and diagnostics diverted to support COVID-19 responses, coupled with large numbers of unvaccinated children and persistent global pockets of measles outbreaks, have increased the “likelihood of measles-related deaths and serious complications in children,” Cain added.
Just for comparison:
– The death rate of measles was as high as 2.83 deaths per 1000 reported measles cases in one study.
– In one study of COVID-19, for those under 18, there was a rate reported of about 2 for every million people in this age range.
The vaccination rates had been plunging in this country before the pandemic, which is a contributing factor in the new CDC assessment. And while the number of measles cases fell in 2020, the numbers will increase as life returns to post-COVID normal.
“Evidence suggests we are likely seeing the calm before the storm as the risk of outbreaks continues to grow around the world,” said Kate O’Brien, director of WHO’s department of immunisation, vaccines, and biologicals.“It’s critical that countries vaccinate as quickly as possible against covid-19, but this requires new resources so that it does not come at the cost of essential immunisation programmes. Routine immunisation must be protected and strengthened; otherwise, we risk trading one deadly disease for another.”Ephrem Tekle Lemango, associate director for immunisation at Unicef, said, “Even before the pandemic, we were seeing how even small pockets of low measles immunisation coverage could fuel unprecedented outbreaks, including in countries where the disease had been considered eradicated. And now covid-19 is creating widening gaps in coverage at a pace we haven’t seen in decades.
Kate O’Brien, director of the WHO’s immunization department, wants to reprioritize the childhood vaccinations that actually prevent disease.
“Routine immunisation must be protected and strengthened; otherwise, we risk trading one deadly disease for another.”“Large numbers of unvaccinated children, outbreaks of measles, and disease detection and diagnostics diverted to support Covid-19 responses are factors that increase the likelihood of measles-related deaths and serious complications in children,” said Kevin Cain, the CDC’s global immunisation director.
Suppose there are severe outbreaks of measles, mumps, or other diseases for which effective vaccines are available. In that case, I assert that the blame will belong to the fear-mongering, COVID-vaccine-obsessed bureaucrats who have been allowed to run amok since March 2020.
The consequences of “15-days-to-flatten-the=curve” may have been unintended, but they indeed were predictable.
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