ORLANDO, Fla. – Doctors in Central Florida have seen a dramatic decrease in the number of patients coming in for regular appointments due to the coronavirus pandemic and now, a pediatrician is urging parents to bring their children in for vaccinations.
“We’ve seen a huge decrease, we are down almost 80%,” said Dr. Jeffery Bergman, a pediatric physician at Osceola Regional Medical Center Emergency Department.
According to a recent New York Times report, vaccine rates have dropped in states across the country significantly since cases of coronavirus began to rise.
The Florida Department of Health issued a report on Monday highlighting the importance of infant immunizations, but did not reference any drop in regional vaccination rates.
Vaccines for measles, mumps, whooping cough, and several other known viruses have been used to prevent and control the spread of infectious diseases for the past 75 years.
“That’s why people took time to create vaccinations, most vaccinations are given to children in the first four years of life,” Bergman said.
But with a large number of unvaccinated children, Bergman said there are a number of health risks beyond coronavirus.
“Unfortunately these diseases are still prevalent in some areas of the world and we live in Orlando, we’re an international site, we frequently get visitors from all over the world, those diseases will make their way here and can cause problems,” Bergman said.
Bergman acknowledged the responsibility many members of the community have taken to protect the most vulnerable during the COVID-19 outbreak.
“I think our population really took to heart the message that if you weren’t very ill, you should be avoiding health care facilities for a small amount of time, and I just think they’re trying to help their community by not overloading those facilities. What maybe people didn’t realize though was that a lot of primary care, urgent care, ER facilities were made to handle a lot more patients and like I said before, we’re separating out those patients so you don’t get exposed,” Bergman said.
But how long have patients been delaying their medical appointments?
Starting March 19, the Florida Department of Health issued guidelines for anyone experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 to call ahead before going to a doctor’s office or emergency room.
The following day, March 20, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order directing hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, office surgery centers, dental offices and other health care providers to cease performing elective services.
“It seems to be that people are afraid of COVID and appropriately, but that they’re not doing their regular checkups or coming in for common medical problems and this isn’t just for pediatrics, it extends well into the adult side also,” Bergman said.
He went on to say many medical centers, including the Osceola Regional Medical Center Emergency Department where he works, have separated out the areas where the potential patients with COVID-19 are treated, versus regular care.
Following the governor’s order for phase one of reopening, starting Monday, elective surgeries resumed. Bergman said appointments that were postponed should now be rescheduled.
“We might have a big rush of patients once we open up, not with COVID, but that waited too long on normal medical conditions that we could have improved,” Bergman said.