VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Cases of measles rose by 79 percent in 2023, according to the World Health Organization.
Medical experts say the best way of protecting your kids from these diseases is to get vaccinated.
However, the parents News 3 talked to on Wednesday had differing opinions.
“It’s something that I haven’t done and I’m not going to do," said Cameron Jackson, a Newport News parent.
“I believe that a lot of COVID deaths could’ve been prevented with immunization," said Claudia Simpson, a Norfolk parent.
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This week marks National Infant Immunization Week, highlighting the importance of young people getting protected from vaccine-preventable diseases. According to a release by the National Conference of State Legislatures, child vaccination rates are currently lower than pre-pandemic levels.
“If they’re hesitant, I have to find out why, and then we have to talk about it from there," said Dr. John Harrington, a primary care physician with the Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters.
Harrington thinks this dip in the vaccination rate has less to do with people not wanting to get vaccinated, and more to do with a shortage of staff at the hospitals since COVID-19 hit.
“It may have felt like we were vaccinating less but it was really because probably we didn’t have enough staffing in order to vaccinate as many kids as we were," he said.
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However, he did also say he expected the number to climb in coming years as hospitals start to add more staff. According to Harrington, because of vaccines, deaths from diseases that used to be prevalent like Tetanus and Diphtheria have slowly faded away. But if more parents start thinking vaccines aren't necessary and the further the vaccine level drops, the more likely these diseases will make a comeback.
“When those areas and certain pockets of areas get below that level they are likely to have outbreaks and stuff and that’s what we’ve seen in certain areas of the country," he told News 3.
This is already happening in states like Florida. In February, the Broward County Health Department notified its community of a measles outbreak.
