REMARKS
Lynn Schulman's opening remarks (delivered by Carmen De La Rosa) on declining childhood vaccination rates
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3 min
Council Member Carmen De La Rosa delivers Council Member Lynn Schulman's opening remarks.
Council Member Schulman champions addressing the issue of declining childhood vaccination rates in New York City during the Committee on Health meeting.
- Talks about the significant drop in vaccination rates among children ages 19 to 35 months, not returning to pre-pandemic levels.
- Cites the COVID-19 pandemic, a decrease in birth rates, and inaccuracies in census estimates as key factors contributing to the decline.
- Highlights a commitment to support childhood vaccination efforts and discusses strategies for vaccinating asylum seekers.
- Emphasizes the need to address disparities and inequities in vaccine coverage among marginalized communities.
- Concludes by thanking the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) and her staff for their role in this public health effort.
Carmen De La Rosa
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Thank you so much.
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Council member, Maria, I'm here reading chair Schulman's opening statement on the Committee on Health.
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Thank you, Cher Moia.
0:04:51
Good afternoon.
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I am Natlin Schulman, but I am her replacement right now.
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Chair of the council's committee on health.
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I wanna thank chair Moia and the subcommittee on COVID and infectious diseases for joining and today's important hearing to address the decline of childhood vaccination rates in New York City.
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According to a 2024 preliminary measures management or in New York City, the percentage of children ages 19 to 35 months.
0:05:16
Without today immunizations remains far below the 75% target and has not returned to pre pandemic levels.
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The COVID 19 pandemic negatively impacted routine pediatric back vaccination, in part because healthcare providers, offices were closed, and young children were not attending child care programs.
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DOH MH, states that these decreases in coverage may also be attributed to the declining number of births in New York City, and the lagging system census estimates of children living in New York City, meaning that the the denominator used to calculate the indicator may be larger than the true denominator.
0:05:53
The percentage of children in public schools who are in compliance with required immunizations was 90.9% in the 1st 4 months of fiscal year 2024 and a 2.3 percentage decrease compared to the same time period in fiscal 2023.
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I look forward to discussing BOH And Nature's Strategies to reverse this troubling decline.
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As chair of the committee on health, I stand ready to support children support childhood vaccination efforts in any way that I can.
0:06:21
And I look forward to collaborating on this issue in the future further in response to the influx of no arrivals, including asylum seekers, to NYC, DOH MH, and other agency state, that they are working to link families to medical care to ensure that children are in compliance with school immunization requirements.
0:06:40
My hope is that today's hearing will shed significant light on how the city is ensuring that asylum seekers are vaccinated and that such vaccinations are documented for contoon Continuality of Care.
0:06:52
We know that clusters of undervaccinated and unvaccinated children cave to outbreaks of preventable diseases, as was the case in 2019 when the city recorded 649 cases of measles.
0:07:05
While education is key, the city must also ensure that vaccines are easily accessible and must respond to the disparities and inequities in vaccine coverage rates, particularly among black and Hispanic children and children with Medicaid coverage or no health insurance.
0:07:22
These inequities predated the pandemic and arise out of a wide variety of reasons, including not being able to get vaccinated from a trusted place fear of paying out of pocket costs, having difficulty traveling to a vaccination site, or needing to take time off work to get an appointment.
0:07:39
We must make it as clear and as easy as possible to learn about the benefits of vaccination and to connect families to in community providers that provide these vaccinations for children.
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The city's public health depend on it.
0:07:53
In closing, I would like to thank DOHMH for their partnership on this important topic and for testifying today.
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I also want to thank my staff, Jonathan Voucher, Kevin McAlier, Andrew Davis, and Jessica Cillis, and the commit and the health committee staff Christopher Pepe, Sara Susser, and Manur But for their work on this important hearing.
0:08:14
I will now turn it back to Chairman.