The poor are the most vulnerable
The pandemic has also affected vaccine levels for poor children, said Adams, the state’s director of immunization.
Among infants in Michigan, there was a 6.8 percent drop in vaccine coverage among those enrolled in Medicaid during the pandemic – falling to a 10-year low of 64.7 percent as of Oct. 31. The pandemic rate is 75.1 percent, according to the same state report.
For low-income families: “What are you going to use your money for – food? gasoline? heat? “Things that are necessary,” Adams said. “And you may not go to the provider’s office after skipping a workday to get your child vaccinated.”
A few days later, he left.
But the tragedy of Francesca McNally’s short life shows that poor children are not only in danger. The Francesca family lived in Franklin, a predominantly affluent village in Auckland County, north of Detroit.
When she was born in 2012, she was too young to be fully vaccinated against pertussis. Infants and others who have not yet been vaccinated are instead protected from herd immunity in society.
In a healthy baby aged about 12 weeks, Francesca on Wednesday had a mild cough that Veronica McNally noticed while walking with her.
Her parents took her to the doctor, but she got worse. Sluggish. Do not eat. A few days later, the doctor assured McNally in the emergency department that “everything will be fine with her,” Veronica McNally recalled.
“The next day was Mother’s Day and she was out of order,” McNally Bridge said.
The couple went to CS Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, where the child was immediately hospitalized in the pediatric intensive care unit. Her parents last saw her conscious when she was baptized, even as a team of medics prepared her tiny body for mechanical ventilation.
Francesca died on May 17, 2012.
By the time of her funeral, her parents – both lawyers – had set up a non-profit organization Franny Strong Foundationwhich through the I-Vaccinate The campaign encourages parents to immunize their children.
Veronica McNally has also become a national supporter of vaccinations.
On Thursday, Francesca’s birthday, her mother participated in another virtual meeting that lasted a day, as a representative of the CDC Consumer Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a committee that recommended, among other things, the Pfizer vaccine for children aged 5 years. old.
On the ballot in NovemberMcNally noted 94 American children whose deaths were linked to COVID at the time: “I’m really doing this to prevent number 95, 95th death,” she said.