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Q&A
Council member inquires about vaccination rates and DOHMH's concerns
3:10:43
·
97 sec
Council Member Lynn Schulman asks about DOHMH's concerns regarding vaccination rates in New York City. Acting Commissioner Michelle Morse responds, discussing trends in childhood and adult vaccination rates since the pandemic, as well as the department's efforts and budget allocation for immunization programs.
- Childhood vaccination rates have trended down since the pandemic, but rates for kindergarten entry are improving
- Adult flu and COVID vaccination rates have decreased in wintertime
- DOHMH has allocated $40 million for immunization programs, including the Vaccine for Children program
Lynn Schulman
3:10:43
I'm gonna switch now to I wanna talk about vaccine disease prevention and vaccines.
3:10:48
So is DOHMH concerned about the vaccination rates in New York City for any particular disease?
Michelle Morse
3:10:56
Thank you for the question.
3:10:58
Vaccination rates are something that we're paying a lot of attention to right now as you can imagine.
3:11:04
We have seen a number of changes in childhood vaccination rates particularly since the pandemic.
3:11:10
The overall national trend has been that childhood vaccination rates have drifted down since the pandemic, and here in New York City we have also seen indications that childhood vaccination rates have trended down a bit.
3:11:24
However, what we have also seen is that for kids at the time that they're entering kindergarten in New York City, their vaccination rates are quite good and are starting to improve.
3:11:34
So that's exciting.
3:11:36
We have also unfortunately seen some trends towards less flu and COVID vaccinations in the wintertime amongst adults across New York City and we intend to continue all of our community engagement and education efforts for the next respiratory viral season to make sure that New Yorkers know that the vaccines are safe and effective.
3:11:58
So we we're watching very closely.
3:12:01
And as I mentioned, about $40,000,000 in our budget is dedicated fully to our immunization programs.
3:12:08
And that includes our vaccine for children program that distributes more than 2,500,000 doses of childhood vaccines through 1,400 health care providers across the country across the city.