A publication of the Immunization Action Coalition of WA (IACW) and WithinReach
June 2021
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Greetings!
June brings much joy in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. It is the start of long summer days, the end of the school year, graduations, Father’s Day, Pride and Juneteenth. We are also nearing a milestone of over 62% of our 16+ population initiating vaccination, 54% of us (16+) vaccinated against COVID-19, and our tweens age 12 and older now eligible to be vaccinated!
While COVID-19 vaccinations have slowed down, the commitment to the health of our communities has not wavered. The vaccination focus has shifted from mass vaccination clinics, to community and school-based pop-up clinics, where access barriers and hesitancy exists. A beautiful example of successful localized vaccination efforts in South King County was recently highlighted in The Seattle Times.
In our June newsletter, you’ll find information on community COVID-19 campaigns, upcoming events and other information we hope you’ll find helpful in your work.
As always, stay safe, stay healthy and get vaccinated!
WithinReach
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Community COVID-19 Campaigns |
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When you receive your COVID-19 vaccine, you get a vaccination card to prove it. Keep it safe! You should treat it like you would your credit cards, driver’s license or passport. Your card isn’t just a scheduling reminder: it’s an official record that you may need for travel, event access, and possibly booster doses later.
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The HHS COVID-19 public education campaign is a national initiative to increase public confidence in and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines while reinforcing basic prevention measures such as mask-wearing and social distancing. Through a nationwide network of trusted messengers and consistent, fact-based public health messaging, the campaign helps the public make informed decisions about their health and COVID-19.
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The Get the Facts campaign is based on CDC guidance, offering facts about COVID-19 vaccines in a simple and memorable way that counters common misconceptions. These facts address cost, ingredients, side effects, eligibility and more. Each set of materials includes translations in more than 30 languages as well as the ability for you to customize the logo, URL, photo and more.
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Upcoming Webinars & Events |
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June 9th, 2021, 2:00 - 3:00 pm EST
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Routine vaccination is an essential preventive care service for adults as well as children. Unfortunately, many U.S. adults do not receive all recommended vaccines and thus, remain unprotected against preventable diseases. This gap in coverage has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Join the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases for a discussion on current adult vaccination recommendations and strategies for increasing coverage among adults in the U.S.
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June 9th, 2021, 3:00 pm EST
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The COVID-19 vaccination campaign is ongoing in the U.S. and around the world. Dr. Evan Anderson, Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, will provide an update regarding vaccinating children and pregnant women. He will also discuss potential concerns related to the new SARS-CoV-2 variants and steps taken to address them.
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June 9th, 2021, 12:00 pm PST
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HRSA ORO Region 10 is collaborating with Northwest Regional Primary Care Association (NWRPCA) and Northwest Center for Public Health Practice (NWCPHP) to host a series of three webinars on vaccine equity in response to COVID-19. Each webinar will focus on the impact of COVID-19 on disproportionately affected groups, discuss strategies to foster resiliency within communities, and highlight success stories and promising practices addressing vaccine equity.
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July 14, 2021, 12:00 - 2:00 pm PST
Register today for our July Immunization Action Coalition of Washington (IACW) quarterly meeting! Stay tuned for an agenda.
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Hepatitis B Health Disparities in Refugee and Immigrant Communities
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Drop Your Assumptions and Pick Up the Evidence: Strategies for Communication with Parents About Vaccines
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When it comes to COVID-19 vaccines, I want to say: If you were my 16-plus teenager, you’d be vaccinated. If you were my 12- to-15-year-old kid, you’d have your first shot by now. And if you were younger, I’d be counting the days until I could give you a vaccine.
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When cases of COVID-19 began rising in Boston last spring, Pooja Chandrashekar, then a first year student at Harvard Medical School, worried that easy-to-understand information about the pandemic might not be available in the many languages spoken by clients of the Family Van, the health services and health literacy program where she was working at the time.
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Initially, the vaccine was not tested on people who were pregnant. New trials have been planned and started that include people who are pregnant, and studies on animals receiving the vaccines before or during pregnancy found no safety concerns.
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For some pathogens, scientists have identified a “correlate of protection,” which is typically a quantity of specific antibodies above which a person is protected against an infection and below which protection is uncertain.
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This discussion paper is part of the National Academy of Medicine's "Emerging Stronger After COVID-19" Priorities for Health System Transformation initiative, which commissioned papers from experts on how key sectors of the health, health care, and biomedical science fields responded to and can be transformed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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QUESTIONS OR SUGGESTIONS?
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Making the connections Washington families need to be healthy and safe. Promoting, protecting & supporting immunization as a vital part of the health and development of children and families. |
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Founded in 1994, the Immunization Action Coalition of Washington (IACW), a program of WithinReach, works to improve the health of the community by minimizing the incidence of vaccine preventable diseases through the optimal use of immunizations across the lifespan.
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