O.C. pediatricians fear future outbreaks as children miss crucial immunizations

As many parents delay crucial immunizations for their children due to fears of exposing them to COVID-19, Orange County pediatricians worry about future outbreaks of measles, whooping cough and meningitis.

“Our concern is once society starts to get back to normal, there is a risk that we may see outbreaks of these very dangerous, vaccine-preventable illnesses,” said Dr. Steven Abelowitz, a pediatrician with Coastal Kids Pediatrics. “... For children, they’re far more dangerous than COVID.”

Abelowitz said that many parents haven’t been bringing their children in for needed wellness medical visits since the beginning of the pandemic.

He estimated that about 20% of the children who go to Coastal Kids are behind in their vaccines. The practice has offices in Newport Beach, Laguna Niguel, Ladera Ranch, Irvine and Laguna Hills.

“Without a doubt it’s imperative for the well-being of the health of the children,” Abelowitz said. “The benefits of maintaining their well visits and preventative vaccines far outweighs the childrens’ risks to COVID.”

Abelowitz said Coastal Kids has made a number of changes to make parents more comfortable bringing their children in for visits. He said the practice started outreach in the early months of quarantine.

“We have drive-up visits and remote check-in ... But with all of that, you know, there’s a concern of coming in or going into any somewhat public place, especially a medical facility, where people are worried that they could come in to get vaccines and they get COVID,” Abelowitz said.

Katherine Williamson, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics Orange County chapter, said parents also haven’t been bringing their children in for medical visits because they believe their particular hospital could be closed. This could be due to smaller practices being forced to close at the beginning of the pandemic.

“But I feel pretty comfortable saying that most, if not all, primary care doctors are open,” Williamson said, adding that it’s possible that information hasn’t reached all parents.

Williamson said the more likely outbreaks could be measles or whooping cough, though she said almost every illness that children are vaccinated for could potentially spread.

Blue Cross Blue Shield predicted last year that children could miss close to 9 million doses of vaccines in 2020.

“If kids aren’t vaccinated for things like measles and polio, it doesn’t take many kids not getting vaccinated for those diseases to reemerge, and we can have epidemics,” Williamson said.

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