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Recognizing April 2021 as Autism Acceptance and Awareness Month in the City of Philadelphia, and commending the Eagles Autism Foundation and Divine Providence Village for their vaccination initiative.
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WHEREAS, April is National Autism Acceptance and Awareness Month, a time to educate our community about autism, also known as Autism Spectrum Disorder ("ASD"), a complex neurological condition that affects, in varying degrees, language and social skill development, characterized by challenges in communication and social interactions, repetitive behaviors and movement, impacting individuals of all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds; and
WHEREAS, The 2014 Pennsylvania Census Report identified over 4,167 individuals in Philadelphia County with autism receiving services - more than double the previously documented number - the majority of whom are between the ages of 5 and 17 years old, with the number of adults over 21 years old increasing as the population ages; and
WHEREAS, According to estimates from the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring ("ADDM") Network of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention ("CDC"), 1 in 54 children have been identified with ASD, yet another indicator that this intellectual disability is, if not increasingly frequent, more likely to be diagnosed; and
WHEREAS, A cross-sectional study led by Drs. Jonathan Gleason and Wendy Ross of Jefferson Health this year of 64,858,460 patients across 547 health care organizations reveals that having an intellectual disability was the strongest independent risk factor for presenting with a COVID-19 diagnosis and the strongest independent risk factor other than age for COVID-19 mortality, indicating that screening for COVID-19, care coordination, and vaccination efforts should be intense within this population that is less able to consistently use masks and socially distance; and
WHEREAS, Neither the CDC nor Pennsylvania have included autism on their list of cond...
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