President's Message, January 2021
Trude Haecker, MD, FAAP
A Busy Month
Though February may be the shortest month, it is a month marked by occasions big and small. This February has been full of astounding events across the state—incessant winter storms, continued “politics” of the COVID-19 vaccine distribution and vaccine hesitancy, school reopening controversies and persistent racial disparities. With each passing day, we return to the PA AAP Blueprint to address the critical issues exacerbated by the winter weather, reliance on distance learning, and racial disparities in COVID-19 mortality rates.
February is Black History month, and we are celebrating with this year’s theme, The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity. Systemic racism and inequity in health care are at the heart of the tragic reality that black and brown people are twice as likely to die from COVID-19 as white people. The correlation between COVID-19 mortality and race, low wage earning, and subsidized housing exposes the extent of the uphill climb black people face in matters of health care, economic opportunity, and more. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania’s numbers reflect those same national disparities. We applaud Pennsylvanians’ efforts to address this issue, including Dr. Ala Stanford. Dr. Stanford is a Philadelphia-based pediatric surgeon and founder of the Black Doctors COVID Consortium (BDCC) who has been actively vaccinating against COVID-19 in our urban community. In a fantastic display of community organizing, Dr. Stanford vaccinated about 4000 individuals at the first 24-hour vaccine clinic held on Friday 2/19 into Saturday 2/20. She puts the challenge of reaching black communities in these words, “it is about the healthcare system being untrustworthy to African Americans.” If the problem is one of trust, then we must strive harder to earn that trust, so that there is never hesitancy about going to a doctor’s office or hospital and receiving care.
With the work of the BDCC and the efforts of many others, we can be a bit optimistic given that the pandemic numbers seem to finally be decreasing. Let’s hope we can get our patients back into the office to be seen for specialty care or well care and to get caught up on developmental screenings, diagnostic testing and immunizations.
In our bi-weekly PA AAP COVID-19 update (archived updates found here), we noted that the PA DOH has reallocated vaccines to providers per a DOH mandate. Designed to improve vaccination efficacy across the state, this decision will decrease the number of vaccine providers by 75%, including many pediatric offices. This move comes after reports that Pennsylvania ranks among the worst in vaccine administration. The Advocacy Committee took two decisive actions on this front; (1) we wrote a strong letter of protest and (2) co-signed a second letter with the PA-MED, PAFP and POMA renouncing this decision—both letters were sent to the PA DOH.
Pediatric offices are unmatched in vaccine distribution, inoculating patients every day in an efficient and effective manner; therefore, it is the belief of PA AAP that pediatric offices should not be eliminated from vaccine distribution. This is especially true now as almost a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant number of parents are still postponing or skipping their children’s immunizations. A recent BC/BS analysis found a 26% drop in vaccine doses in 2020. This month the CDC published their annual immunization schedules with the corresponding policy statement issued in Pediatrics. Please refer to the AAP’s #Callyourpediatrician toolkit as another resource to engage with your families on immunization.
In addition to the AAP’s recently updated recommendations around returning to school, the CDC has just released new guidelines for safe reopening of schools. Recent studies in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report as well as a recent editorial in JAMA assert that, as we suspected, there is "little evidence that schools have contributed meaningfully to increased community transmission." Beyond the educational deficits, I am sure you have all been inundated with concerns from parents regarding the impact of school closures on children's psychological well-being. These concerns are very real and indeed we are seeing rising mental health visits in outpatient emergency departments and inpatient settings, as well as youth suicides driven by social isolation. We will be revisiting pediatric mental health issues in an upcoming PA AAP Let’s Talk Webinar—be sure to join us for what will surely be another productive conversation on the issue. Also, Dr. Ken Ginsburg will be our keynote speaker at the upcoming PA AAP CME conference discussing Building Resiliency in Children--register here for the March 20th event. The Chapter has called on the PA DOH to prioritize teachers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, facilitating a swift return to in-person learning. The executive leadership will be meeting with Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam in the near future to discuss these issues.
Because of the many challenges discussed above, I am very excited about our upcoming second annual PA AAP CME Conference to be held virtually on Saturday, March 20, 2021 from 8:30am-4pm. This will be a time of sharing and connecting—something we’ve all learned how to achieve virtually in the last year. The PA AAP CME/Education Committee has put together a terrific program with a tremendous line-up of speakers. All sessions will be recorded so you can view them later. Please join us and register now for what promises to be an amazing day of talks, starting with our opening speaker, Lee Savio Beers, MD current AAP President.
As always, thank you for all you do for Pennsylvania’s children. I look forward to celebrating the first day of spring, March 20, with you at the CME conference.
Please do not hesitate to contact me at haecker@chop.edu or Annette Myarick at amyarick@ paaap.org.
Though February may be the shortest month, it is a month marked by occasions big and small. This February has been full of astounding events across the state—incessant winter storms, continued “politics” of the COVID-19 vaccine distribution and vaccine hesitancy, school reopening controversies and persistent racial disparities. With each passing day, we return to the PA AAP Blueprint to address the critical issues exacerbated by the winter weather, reliance on distance learning, and racial disparities in COVID-19 mortality rates.
February is Black History month, and we are celebrating with this year’s theme, The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity. Systemic racism and inequity in health care are at the heart of the tragic reality that black and brown people are twice as likely to die from COVID-19 as white people. The correlation between COVID-19 mortality and race, low wage earning, and subsidized housing exposes the extent of the uphill climb black people face in matters of health care, economic opportunity, and more. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania’s numbers reflect those same national disparities. We applaud Pennsylvanians’ efforts to address this issue, including Dr. Ala Stanford. Dr. Stanford is a Philadelphia-based pediatric surgeon and founder of the Black Doctors COVID Consortium (BDCC) who has been actively vaccinating against COVID-19 in our urban community. In a fantastic display of community organizing, Dr. Stanford vaccinated about 4000 individuals at the first 24-hour vaccine clinic held on Friday 2/19 into Saturday 2/20. She puts the challenge of reaching black communities in these words, “it is about the healthcare system being untrustworthy to African Americans.” If the problem is one of trust, then we must strive harder to earn that trust, so that there is never hesitancy about going to a doctor’s office or hospital and receiving care.
With the work of the BDCC and the efforts of many others, we can be a bit optimistic given that the pandemic numbers seem to finally be decreasing. Let’s hope we can get our patients back into the office to be seen for specialty care or well care and to get caught up on developmental screenings, diagnostic testing and immunizations.
In our bi-weekly PA AAP COVID-19 update (archived updates found here), we noted that the PA DOH has reallocated vaccines to providers per a DOH mandate. Designed to improve vaccination efficacy across the state, this decision will decrease the number of vaccine providers by 75%, including many pediatric offices. This move comes after reports that Pennsylvania ranks among the worst in vaccine administration. The Advocacy Committee took two decisive actions on this front; (1) we wrote a strong letter of protest and (2) co-signed a second letter with the PA-MED, PAFP and POMA renouncing this decision—both letters were sent to the PA DOH.
Pediatric offices are unmatched in vaccine distribution, inoculating patients every day in an efficient and effective manner; therefore, it is the belief of PA AAP that pediatric offices should not be eliminated from vaccine distribution. This is especially true now as almost a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant number of parents are still postponing or skipping their children’s immunizations. A recent BC/BS analysis found a 26% drop in vaccine doses in 2020. This month the CDC published their annual immunization schedules with the corresponding policy statement issued in Pediatrics. Please refer to the AAP’s #Callyourpediatrician toolkit as another resource to engage with your families on immunization.
In addition to the AAP’s recently updated recommendations around returning to school, the CDC has just released new guidelines for safe reopening of schools. Recent studies in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report as well as a recent editorial in JAMA assert that, as we suspected, there is "little evidence that schools have contributed meaningfully to increased community transmission." Beyond the educational deficits, I am sure you have all been inundated with concerns from parents regarding the impact of school closures on children's psychological well-being. These concerns are very real and indeed we are seeing rising mental health visits in outpatient emergency departments and inpatient settings, as well as youth suicides driven by social isolation. We will be revisiting pediatric mental health issues in an upcoming PA AAP Let’s Talk Webinar—be sure to join us for what will surely be another productive conversation on the issue. Also, Dr. Ken Ginsburg will be our keynote speaker at the upcoming PA AAP CME conference discussing Building Resiliency in Children--register here for the March 20th event. The Chapter has called on the PA DOH to prioritize teachers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, facilitating a swift return to in-person learning. The executive leadership will be meeting with Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam in the near future to discuss these issues.
Because of the many challenges discussed above, I am very excited about our upcoming second annual PA AAP CME Conference to be held virtually on Saturday, March 20, 2021 from 8:30am-4pm. This will be a time of sharing and connecting—something we’ve all learned how to achieve virtually in the last year. The PA AAP CME/Education Committee has put together a terrific program with a tremendous line-up of speakers. All sessions will be recorded so you can view them later. Please join us and register now for what promises to be an amazing day of talks, starting with our opening speaker, Lee Savio Beers, MD current AAP President.
As always, thank you for all you do for Pennsylvania’s children. I look forward to celebrating the first day of spring, March 20, with you at the CME conference.
Please do not hesitate to contact me at haecker@chop.edu or Annette Myarick at amyarick@ paaap.org.
