With the COVID public health emergency winding down, Sangamon County public health officials say they’ll be turning more focus to ongoing health issues like restaurant inspections and chronic health conditions.
But public health director Gail O’Neill says one big function of the department may have been complicated by reaction to the pandemic.
O’Neill says the health department works hard each summer to remind parents to make sure their kids have all necessary immunizations before school starts again. But O’Neill told WMAY that a backlash against COVID vaccines seems to have led to increased resistance to vaccinations of all sorts.
She says it’s still very important for children to have all required shots to avoid modern-day outbreaks of preventable illnesses like measles, mumps, or even polio.
