[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 50 (Monday, December 18, 2000)]
[Pages 3059-3061]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the Childhood Immunization Initiative and an Exchange With 
Reporters

December 11, 2000

    The President. Thank you very much. And let me say, I took a lot of 
pride, just listening to Mrs. Carter speak here. She seemed right at 
home.
    When Hillary and I moved into the Arkansas Governor's mansion in 
1979, Betty Bumpers began her lifelong campaign to wear me out about 
immunizations. [Laughter] And I reminded Rosalynn that it was in 1979 or 
1980 that we actually did an immunization event in the backyard of the 
Arkansas Governor's mansion. I can't remember whether it was '79 or '80 
now, but it was, anyway, a year or 2 ago.
    So I can't thank these two women enough for what they have done. And 
I was marveling, when Mrs. Carter was going through all those issues, at 
just how well she knows and understands this issue. So I'm very grateful 
to both of them, because we wouldn't be here today if it weren't for 
them.
    I also want to thank Secretary Shalala and Secretary Glickman and, 
in her absence, Hillary. They have worked very hard on this for the last 
8 years, and we have made some remarkable progress.
    I want to recognize also Dr. Walter Ornstein of the CDC and Shirley 
Watkins of the Department of Agriculture, who will be very active in the 
steps that I'm going to announce today.
    I think it's worth noting that we're meeting in the Roosevelt Room, 
which was named for our two Presidents and Eleanor Roosevelt. And 
Franklin Roosevelt spent almost half his life in a wheelchair as a 
result of polio. And I was part of the first generation of Americans to 
be immunized against polio.
    And I remember, as a child, seeing other children in iron lungs. And 
I remember what an enormous elation it was for me and my classmates when 
we first got our polio vaccines, to think that that's one thing we 
didn't have to worry about anymore. It's hard for people now who weren't 
alive then and weren't part of it to even imagine what that meant to a 
whole generation of children. But it was profoundly important.
    We now know that vaccines save lives and agony. They also save 
money. They're a good investment. And we have done what we could, over 
the last 8 years, to make sure that our children get the best shot in 
life by getting their shots. And we have, as Rosalynn said, made 
progress.
    In 1993 almost two out of five children under the age of three had 
not been fully vaccinated. And Secretary Shalala and Hillary and the 
rest of our team went to work with the Childhood Immunization Initiative 
to improve immunization services, make the vaccines safer and more 
affordable, and increase the immunization rates. We enacted the Vaccines 
for Children program to provide free vaccines to uninsured and 
underinsured children. And thanks to the work of people in this room and 
people like you all across America, these rates, as Mrs. Carter said, 
are at an all-time high. And the incidence of diseases such as measles, 
mumps, and rubella are at an all-time low.
    In recent years, we've been able to say that for the first time in 
our Nation's history, 90 percent of our children have been immunized 
against serious childhood diseases. And just as important, vaccine 
levels are almost the same for preschool kids across racial and ethnic 
lines. So our children are safer and healthier.
    But as has already been said today, there is still a lot to do. At 
least a million infants and toddlers are not fully immunized. Too many 
children continue to fall victim to diseases that a simple immunization 
could have prevented. Low-income children are far less likely to be 
immunized. In some urban areas, for example, immunization rates are 20 
percent below the national average.
    In Houston, just 63 percent of low-income kids are vaccinated. In 
Detroit and Newark, it's 66 percent. And we know areas with below-
average immunization rates are at greater risk of potentially deadly 
outbreaks, such as what we saw with the measles epidemic in the early 
eighties--the late eighties.

[[Page 3060]]

So today we are here to announce three new steps that we hope will build 
on the record and meet the outstanding challenges.
    First, we have to go where the children are, as Mrs. Carter said. 
Over 45 percent of infants and toddlers nationwide are being served by 
the Women, Infants, and Children program. It's the single largest point 
of access to health care for low-income preschool children, who are at 
highest risk of low vaccination coverage. The immunization rates for 
children in WIC in some cases is 20 percent lower than the rates for 
other children. So WIC is clearly the place to start on the outstanding 
challenge.
    Today I am directing WIC to conduct an immunization assessment of 
every child participating in the program, all 5 million of them. Each 
time a child comes in, their immunization status will be evaluated. 
Children who are behind schedule or who don't have records will be 
referred to a local health care provider. I am asking the CDC to provide 
WIC's staff with the information they need to conduct immunization 
assessments accurately and efficiently. We know this will work. WIC 
centers that have experimented with this type of approach have seen 
vaccination coverage increase by up to 40 percent in just one year.
    Second, I am directing Secretary Shalala and Secretary Glickman to 
develop a national strategic plan to further improve immunization for 
children at risk--so they'll have something to do in this last 40 days. 
[Laughter] This would include steps to utilize new technology, share 
best practices, and examine how we can enlist other Federal programs 
serving children in the effort to improve immunization rates.
    But it isn't a job just for Government alone. We need to work with 
other caring organizations to succeed. So third and finally, I'm 
announcing that the American Academy of Pediatrics is launching a new 
campaign to urge all 55,000 of its members to remind WIC-eligible 
parents to bring their immunization records with them when they visit 
WIC sites. I want to thank the members of the AAP for their initiative 
as well. We need to keep working until every child in every community is 
safe from vaccine-preventable disease.
    Dr. Jonas Salk, the father of the polio vaccine, once said, ``The 
greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more.'' We've done a 
lot together, and we have more to do. Thank you very much.

Supreme Court

    Q. President Clinton, any comment on the Supreme Court today and 
what they might do?
    The President. No, I think we ought to just wait and see what they 
do. One way or the other, it will be an historic decision that we'll 
live with forever.

Peace Process in Northern Ireland

    Q. Mr. President, on Northern Ireland, you're going to be traveling 
to Britain and Ireland later this evening. Do you have any particular 
message for Sinn Fein on the issue of IRA disarmament?
    The President. Well, I think I'll save my words for when I get to 
Ireland. But let me just observe what the state of play is here. We've 
had a peace now for a couple of years, overwhelmingly endorsed by the 
people of Northern Ireland, the people of the Irish Republic, the 
majority of both communities in Ireland. We've had a functioning 
government where people worked together across lines and did things that 
amazed one another in education and other areas.
    No one wants to go back to the way it was. But there are differences 
about the implementation of the new police force and how that--and also 
about the schedule and method of putting the arms beyond use. And those 
are the two things that could still threaten the progress that we're 
making. And if there's something I can do before I leave to make one 
more shot to resolve this, I will do it.
    The main thing is, the people there are doing well. The Irish 
Republic has the highest growth rate, economic growth rate, in Europe 
now, and things are happening that were unimaginable just a few years 
ago. So I don't believe the people will let it slip back.
    We have just got to get over--ironically, both issues, though they 
are related to one another, independently reflect kind of the lingering 
demons of the past, and we just have to get over there and try to purge 
a

[[Page 3061]]

few more. And I hope I can make a contribution.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 12:54 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the 
White House. In his remarks, he referred to former First Lady Rosalynn 
Carter; Betty Bumpers, wife of former Senator Dale Bumpers; and Dr. 
Walter A. Ornstein, Director, National Immunization Program, Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention.