[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 14 (Monday, April 12, 1993)]
[Pages 567-568]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6542--National Preschool Immunization Week, 1993

 April 9, 1993

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    I believe that each child in this country must have the opportunity 
to live a healthy and full life. Therefore, I am taking dramatic steps 
to ensure that all children are fully immunized at the earliest 
appropriate age against preventable, infectious diseases.
    Immunizations save lives, prevent suffering, and allow significant 
savings in health care costs. Ironically, in this country, which 
develops and produces the majority of the world's vaccines, current 
immunization levels among two-year-olds fall between just 37 and 56 
percent. In the recent measles epidemic, for example, an estimated one-
half of the reported cases occurred among unvaccinated preschool 
children. Today, measles vaccine coverage is reported to be as low as 50 
percent among two-year-olds in some inner-city populations.
    My Administration has launched a comprehensive initiative on 
immunization, including new funding for immunization programs in cities 
throughout the United States. In addition, I have submitted legislation 
that, if passed, would provide for free vaccinations to all children, a 
new tracking system to help inform parents when immunization is needed, 
new avenues of outreach to parents, and other necessary measures 
designed to create a comprehensive immunization program.
    We must expand our efforts to every community and demand the full 
attention and cooperation of everyone in our society in order to find 
solutions to our problems. Much is being done. Federal, State, and local 
governments are devising innovative ways to deliver vaccines at more 
reasonable costs. We are attempting to make providers more sensitive to 
the need to eliminate barriers and problems that cause children to miss 
immunizations. New partnerships and coalitions are being formed between 
the public and private sectors.
    Parents and adults responsible for safeguarding our youngest 
children must be made aware of the seriousness of the problem and act 
appropriately. More than 80 percent of all recommended vaccinations 
should be given before children are two years old--well before they 
start school.
    We must acknowledge this problem, accept our individual and 
collective responsibilities, and get the job done.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, do hereby proclaim the last full week of April as 
National Preschool Immunization Week, beginning with April 1993. I call 
upon all Americans, especially parents and health care providers, to do 
their part to help in this fight and to observe this week annually with 
appropriate activities and recognition ceremonies.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this ninth day of 
April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-three, and of 
the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
seventeenth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:40 a.m., April 12, 
1993]

Note: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register on 
April 13.

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