"NYC Schools Have Been Closed For Months. Must Health Clinics Remain Shuttered, Too?"

Orginal story reported by Fred Mogul for WNYC radio

SBHCs in New York account for nearly 700,000 visits of school children annually for services ranging from routine checkups to vaccinations and dental care. While SBHCs largely remained open (or closed temporarily and then reopened) outside of New York City, SBHCs in the five boroughs have been closed since lockdown began back in March. Sarah Murphy, from the NY School-Based Health Alliance, was interviewed by WNYC and says vaccine-preventable diseases like the measles don't stop for pandemics, but many kids, especially in the city, have fallen behind on their routine vaccinations during the lockdown. Mayor de Blasio has yet to give a reasoning for keeping these clinics closed nor a timeline for when they might reopen, despite thousands of children across the city depending on them in order to safely return to school in the fall and avoid a vaccine-preventable outbreak.

To read the full article & interview with NYSBHA Executive Director Sarah Murphy click HERE

For resources on the importance of immunizations, visit the new page on the Alliance website HERE and look out for a new article coming soon on the importance of child vaccinations during a pandemic.