Doctor speaks on importance of vaccines as children head back to school

AUSTIN, Texas - August is National Immunization Awareness Month, and that's timely as back to school season is here with many Central Texas districts starting up this week. 

But, before parents send their kids back to class, they need to be up-to-date on their vaccinations. 

FOX 7 Austin's Rebecca Thomas was joined by Dr. Frank Betanski, a family medicine physician with Baylor Scott and White Health, to talk about the importance of vaccinations. 

REBECCA: Dr. Betanski, most kids have been immunized by kindergarten. But, if not, what are the needed vaccines? And, what about booster shots for vaccinated students?

DR. BETANSKI: Yeah, there's actually six vaccines that are needed to go into school and kindergarten. That would be the DTap: diptheria, tetanus, pertussis and whooping cough, as well as MMR - that's the measles, mumps, rubella, and hepatitis A, hepatitis B, polio and varicella for chickenpox. As far as boosters go, each one of those six vaccines is a series. So, the DTap we have five vaccinations, MMR has two vaccinations and so on.

REBECCA: Around the age of 11, children are usually due for another round of boosters, along with some additional vaccines, including HPV. Why are those so important?

DR. BETANSKI: That booster at 11 has three vaccines to prevent five illnesses. HPV is one of those. 85% of people will come in contact with HPV. And, that could be anything from a wart on your finger to cervical cancers in women and throat cancers in men and women.

REBECCA: The CDC says measles cases in the U.S. are surging this year. As of August 8, there have been 211 so far this year, compared to 59 in all of last year. 87% of those people were not vaccinated. How concerned are you by this?

DR. BETANSKI: It is pretty concerning. The measles cases in Texas are going up. But, what's really the most important thing here is that measles is a fully preventable illness with vaccines.

REBECCA: When it comes to vaccinations, a new Gallup poll found a sharp decline in adults who believe that childhood vaccines are important. Only 26% of Republicans said it was extremely important to vaccinate children, compared to 93% of Democrats. How concerned are you that the topic of vaccinations seems to have become politicized?

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DR. BETANSKI: Absolutely. It's completely normal to have questions large and small about vaccines. And, what really needs to happen is an open and honest conversation with your family medicine doctor and talk about your concerns again, big or small, about what's right for your family.

REBECCA: There has been a lot of misinformation about childhood vaccinations being linked to autism. What do you say to people who are concerned about those claims, or think that there are too many vaccines, too close together? What were your thoughts?

DR. BETANSKI: So, the imaginative link between autism and vaccines has thoroughly been debunked. That's not really an issue. But, what is an issue is there are 22% percent of parents who either forgo vaccines altogether or just kind of spaced them out and are not aligned to the normal schedule we have. And, that puts their children at risk for these very preventable diseases with pretty bad complications, and also gets the parents at risk for some pretty sleepless nights.

REBECCA: Finally, should students be getting flu and COVID shots because we're going to be heading into that season shortly?

DR. BETANSKI: Absolutely. COVID-19 and flu are recommended for all school-year-aged children. They really are the first line of defense to keep kids in school, keep the learning going and keep us all safe for this coming year.