Mr. President, I rise today to offer an amendment regarding childhood immunization. Remarkable advances in the science of vaccine development and widespread immunization efforts have led to a substantial reduction in the incidence of infectious disease. Today, as you know, national vaccination coverage is at record high levels. Still, the job is not done and it is important that we remain vigilant. Every day, nearly 11,000 infants are born and each baby will need up to 22 doses of vaccine by age two.
New vaccines continue to enter the market.
And although a significant proportion of the general population may be fully immunized at a given time, coverage rates in the United States are uneven and life-threatening disease outbreaks do occur. In fact, recent data from the CDC indicate that coverage rates may be leveling off and that in many areas of the country, including Chicago, Houston, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota and New Mexico, they are actually declining. At the same time, funding to states and localities for immunization delivery activities has also been dramatically reduced over the past five years. States are now struggling to maintain immunization rates and have implemented severe cuts to immunization activities. Many have already reduced clinic hours, canceled contracts with providers, suspended registry development and implementation, limited outreach efforts and discontinued performance monitoring.