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Vaccinations rates in children dropped across Oregon over the past two months as families sheltered in place during the pandemic and kept their children out of clinics.
As measles outbreaks continue in the Northwest and across the nation, newly revealed health records from Oregon suggest it’s surprisingly easy to opt out of required vaccinations in that state — as in several others.
Significant federal policy changes could force many providers to opt out of Oregon’s well-established immunization program, potentially leaving kids around the state unvaccinated and with a higher risk of disease, state health care leaders and providers say.
August 27, 2013 – A report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this summer said the HPV vaccine is “grossly underutilized” by families with children in the recommended age groups – and that the lack of uptake has less to do with availability than with lack of good information about who should get the vaccine and why.
August 21, 2013 – Getting kids ready for school means getting them vaccinated – and county health departments throughout the Portland metro area are hosting walk-in clinics and supporting schools and primary health providers to make certain they have stores of vaccines.
June 7, 2013 — The Senate passed a bill designed to reverse the number of children who enter public schools without vaccinations, putting in place new restrictions for nonmedical exemptions, despite partisan opposition from Republicans who said the restrictions usurp the rights of religious minor
February 21, 2013 — By the end of the 20th Century, vaccines had once common illnesses like polio and measles and whooping cough down for the count. But once rare infectious diseases have started returning in the past decade, as more and more parents have stopped having their children vaccinated.
February 12, 2013 -- If a disease outbreak swept over Oregon like this winter’s flu pandemic or the whooping cough epidemic declared in Washington last April, children under 11 could not get shots at pharmacies under current law without a prescription.
