Texas children need vaccinations against measles, pertussis, hepatitis, and other diseases to attend school. But Dr. Jeffrey Kahn, Chief of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Health and a Professor of Pediatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center, tells KERA’s Sam Baker why he is concerned about this school year.

INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:

Vaccines and the pandemic

There's been a gap in the vaccination procedures and schedules, mostly due to the pandemic. There is a significant concern that we're going to have a lot of children coming back to school who aren't up to date on their vaccines. And that some of these pathogens may sneak into the schools and start spreading.

Vaccine hesitancy

These vaccines are very, very effective to a large extent. They're a victim of their own success. Parents nowadays don't know what these pathogens can do. And unfortunately, the anti-vaxxers have leveraged fear and pushed on these false claims. And it's really a tragedy that this is going on.

Vaccine hesitancy goes back to the very first vaccine, Jenner's smallpox vaccine, where we use cowpox to immunize people against smallpox. So this is a longstanding issue in vaccine history. And unfortunately, we just, we were struggling to get by.

And I think that it's important for physicians, public health officials, and educators to really emphasize the value of vaccines. These pathogens are dangerous and can cause severe diseases that could result in death. So, it's important to keep the children's...

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