Page 29 - IJPS-11-5

International Journal of
Population Studies Human behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic

Figure 32. United states elective surgery rates. Image obtained from Butler et al. (2021).

mortality risk by 13%. Furthermore, the lack of screening
and postponed treatments will lead to increased cancer
deaths over the next decade, as shown in Figure 33 (Miller
et al., 2021).

7.5.2. Vaccination rates
An alarming case of postponed health care was the drop in
non-COVID vaccines. They dropped early in the pandemic
but have largely started to recover. Measles and polio
vaccination rates are discussed to illustrate the impacts of
delayed vaccination.
Measles is thought to have killed 150 million people
over the past 150 years. It is highly contagious and is
particularly dangerous to young children, who often die
from pneumonia. The death rate in developed countries
is 0.1–0.2%, while, in underdeveloped countries, it is 10%.
Before widespread vaccination from the 1963 measles
vaccine, there were an estimated 2.6 million annual measles
deaths, mainly in underdeveloped countries, indicating
that almost everyone had childhood measles.
Figure 33. Delayed cervical screening rates in Southern California. Image
A Johns Hopkins Public Health report (2024) stated obtained from Miller et al. (2021).
that as of March 21, 2024, 64 measles cases were reported
in the US, more than the 58 cases reported in all of 2023.
More than 300,000 cases were reported globally in 2023, countries will be at high or very high risk of measles
outbreaks by the end of 2023 unless urgent preventative
which is an increase of more than 79% from the previous
year. More than 61 million doses of measles-containing measures are taken.
vaccine were postponed or missed between 2020–2022 Polio was almost eradicated. In the early 1950s, polio
due to COVID-related disruptions. The World Health was paralyzing or killing over half a million people
Organization stated that more than half the world’s worldwide annually. As a disease carried only by humans,

Volume 11 Issue 5 (2025) 23 https://doi.org/10.36922/IJPS025110040