September 16, 2021

Network News – September 16, 2021

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Webinar/Biennial Meeting

Register now for IAC’s second September influenza webinar on September 20 at 1:00 p.m. (ET)! Our expert panel will offer ideas on translating COVID-19 vaccination strategies to inform flu vaccination efforts.

As COVID-19 vaccination efforts continue, seasonal influenza vaccination remains essential to protect health and ease the burden on healthcare systems. IAC will hold the second of its September webinars to bolster this year’s influenza vaccination efforts on Monday, September 20, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. (ET). This webinar, Translating COVID-19 Strategies to Improve Influenza Seasonal Flu Vaccination Efforts is now open for registration! The topics discussed will include:

Information to improve influenza vaccination for underserved populations and for improving vaccine equity
Public health strategies to reach small communities
Making a strong recommendation for influenza vaccination this season
Pharmacist and pharmacy lessons learned for improving vaccine access and vaccine equity for vulnerable populations

Speakers will include:

Laura Lee Hall, PhD, president, Center for Sustainable Health Care Quality and Equity, National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF)
Amy Callis, BA, MPH, principal and owner, Devi Partners, a social impact consulting network
Sarah Price, director of public health integration, National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC)
Jennie McLaurin, MD, specialist, child and migrant health, bioethics, Migrant Clinicians Network
Mitchel Rothholz, RPh, MBA, executive director, American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Foundation

Following these presentations, time has been reserved for questions. This live question and answer session will include additional experts from IAC.

Register now to be sure you don’t miss this important September 20 session designed to help you manage this uniquely challenging influenza vaccination season effectively.

Save the date! IZ Coalitions Network webinar on October 5 at 1:00 p.m. (ET): Planned topics include the National Minority Quality Forum’s “Health Equity Vaccine Champion Program” and Vaccinate Your Family’s “Strategies for Dealing with Vaccine Legislation”

Save the date! IAC’s IZ Coalitions Network will host a webinar on October 5 at 1:00 p.m. (ET). Planned topics include the National Minority Quality Forum’s “Health Equity Vaccine Champion Program” and “Vaccinate Your Family’s Strategies for Dealing with Vaccine Legislation.”

Registration will be available soon.

Coalition News, Top Stories, and Events

Montgomery County Immunization Coalition launches “Let’s Get Back to Us” bus campaign

Montgomery County Immunization Coalition launched its Let’s Get Back to Us campaign. This campaign focuses on encouraging 20- through 34-year-olds in the Black community to get the COVID-19 vaccine, allowing them to return safely to family occasions, celebrations, and holiday get-togethers. Buses will be wrapped in bright-colored advertising with positive design elements and the campaign message will be reinforced with interior bus ads. The ads will run September through November.

Related Link

Montgomery County: COVID-19 Vaccine gateway page

Immunize Kansas Coalition shares “Stop the Spread Kansas” campaign featuring rural voices from Kansas on their website and social media channels

Immunize Kansas Coalition (IKC) shared the Stop the Spread Kansas campaign, put together by The Kansas Hospital Association, along with Kansas Medical Society, Kansas Chamber, and Kansas Farm Bureau. The campaign is featured on IKC’s website and social media and seeks to increase public awareness and encourage Kansans, particularly rural Kansans, to protect themselves by getting vaccinated against COVID-19.

The “Stop the Spread Kansas” campaign videos, along with additional resources, are available at www.StoptheSpreadKansas.org.

Related Links

Immunize Kansas Coalition website
IKC: Stop the Spread Kansas campaign web page

Meningitis B Action Project launches back-to-school resources to encourage vaccination, including a new social media series titled “Be a Team Player”

The Meningitis B Action Project has launched a variety of back-to-school resources to encourage vaccination against meningococcal disease. Resources include:

Social media graphics to encourage adolescent vaccination, including the new “Be a Team Player” and the “It Takes Two” series
Back-to-school social media tour in collaboration with Tamera Coyne-Beasley, MD, MPH, chair of adolescent medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Podcast and learning module in partnership with the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (offering 1 hour of CE; 0.5 of which may be applied towards pharmacology)

Check out these resources and more at meningitisBactionproject.org.

Immunize Nevada hosts NILE webinar titled “COVID-19 Vaccine and Delta Variant: Facts vs. Misinformation” on September 30

Nevada Immunization Learning Exchange (NILE) will offer a webinar titled COVID-19 Vaccine and Delta Variant: Facts vs. Misinformation on September 30 at 11:30 a.m. (PT). In this program, Dr. Katrine Wallace will provide an update on the latest research on the COVID-19 vaccines and their effectiveness against the delta variant. The webinar will also discuss “fact vs. fiction” with respect to some common misinformation on social media about vaccines. The learning objectives include:

Learn current COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness estimates against the delta variant
Learn methodological issues associated with determining vaccine effectiveness against infection
Discern facts from misleading information being circulated on social media and elsewhere

Other News, Educational Opportunities, and Events

FDA hosts webinar titled “How Racism and Discrimination Impact Latino/Hispanic Health” on September 17; CE available

The FDA will present a 1-hour webinar, How Racism and Discrimination Impact Latino/Hispanic Health, beginning at 2:00 p.m. (ET) on September 17, as part of its Topics in Public Health series. The webinar will feature Eliseo Pérez-Stable, MD, and will focus on understanding racism/racial bias and its impact on healthcare among Hispanics. Upon completion of this webinar, participants should be able to:

Discuss structural racism and its impact on the Latino/Hispanic health disparities
Illustrate what healthcare professionals can do to support mitigating the effects of structural racism and rehabilitating this space to promote health equity
List current specific and programmatic actions of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) to combat structural racism

Continuing education credits (CME, CPE, CNE, and CPH) will be available upon completion of the webinar.

Register now! Duke’s Margolis Center for Health Policy hosts virtual symposium titled “School-Located Vaccination Strategies to Increase Child and Adolescent Immunization Rates during the COVID-19 Pandemic” on September 17

Duke University’s Margolis Center for Health Policy and the Association of Immunization Managers (AIM) are hosting School-Located Vaccination Strategies to Increase Child and Adolescent Immunization Rates during the COVID-19 Pandemic on September 17 from 12:00–4:00 p.m. (ET). This virtual symposium assembles public health officials, leaders in K-12 education, healthcare providers, and other stakeholders to share best practices for improving childhood and adolescent immunization rates in school settings. Speakers will discuss innovative models and lessons learned for school-located COVID-19 vaccination sites, communication strategies for engaging families and building vaccine confidence, and opportunities to strengthen partnerships between public health, education, and healthcare providers to improve child and adolescent vaccination rates. An agenda and additional details can be found on the event page.

The event is free and open to the public.

Register for this event.

CHOP Vaccine Education Center’s Current Issues in Vaccines for Providers webinar on September 22 features Dr. Paul Offit discussing myths and misinformation surrounding COVID-19 vaccines; CE available

The Vaccine Education Center (VEC) at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia will present a 1-hour webinar on myths and misinformation related to COVID-19 vaccines, beginning at 12:00 p.m. (ET) on September 22. Part of its Current Issues in Vaccines series, the webinar will feature Paul Offit, MD, director of the VEC.

Free continuing education credits (CME, CEU, and CPE) will be available for both the live and archived events.

Related Link

VEC: Vaccine Webinar Archive web page

“This Is the Moment the Anti-vaccine Movement Has Been Waiting For” published in New York Times

On August 31, New York Times published This Is the Moment the Anti-Vaccine Movement Has Been Waiting For. A portion of the article is reprinted below.

As the coronavirus began pushing the nation into lockdown in March 2020, Joshua Coleman, an anti-vaccine campaigner who organizes anti-vaccine rallies, went on Facebook Live to give his followers a rallying speech. He laid out what he thought the pandemic really was: an opportunity.

“This is the one time in human history where every single human being across this country, possibly across the planet, but especially in this country, are all going to have an interest in vaccination and vaccines,” he said. “So it’s time for us to educate.”

By “educate,” he meant to spread misinformation about vaccines.

Resources

IAC’s September 9 webinar, “The Continued Threat of Influenza and How to Sustain Influenza Vaccination Efforts,” now archived for viewing

On September 9, IAC hosted a webinar titled “The Continued Threat of Influenza and How to Sustain Influenza Vaccination Efforts.” The topics included:

Influenza surveillance in the United States and worldwide
Changes in circulation of other common respiratory pathogens, e.g., RSV
Changes in influenza vaccine strains and changes in influenza ACIP recommendations
Communication issues providers may face regarding perceptions of the need for influenza vaccination
A public perspective on the importance of influenza vaccination and advocacy for vulnerable populations

The entire webinar is now archived for viewing. Please share the webinar link with your colleagues.

National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants, and Migrants posts “COVID-19 Resources for Afghan New Arrivals” in Dari, Pashto, and Farsi languages

The University of Minnesota’s National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants, and Migrants (NIC-RIM) released COVID-19 Resources for Afghan New Arrivals. Refugee resettlement agencies, local governments, and community organizations are working hard to welcome Afghan new arrivals who have been displaced from their home country. Materials include:

Posters to download, print, and hang in your health facility
Fact sheets in Dari, Pashto, and Farsi languages
Social media messages and frames
Audio and video PSAs

Check out the variety of materials available in COVID-19 Resources for Afghan New Arrivals.

Updates from Vaccinate Your Family

Vaccinate Your Family (VYF) now offers a portion of its website in Spanish. You can read and share VYF’s website in Spanish by visiting www.vaccinateyourfamily.org/en-espanol.

VYF presents new and updated educational resources for families: the Child and Teen Vaccine-Preventable Diseases e-book (available in Spanish) and the Adult Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (available in Spanish) e-book. These e-books include important, easy-to-read information on vaccine-preventable diseases and the vaccines used to prevent them. The e-books are designed to be online and interactive, but they can also be downloaded, printed, and distributed, either as a whole or as individual disease pages. Please help VYF promote the availability of these new resources.

Related Link

VYF: Vaccine Resources for the Public gateway page

CDC launches toolkit of COVID-19 resources for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their caregivers

CDC released materials to help parents or other caregivers of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) navigate important conversations about COVID-19. CDC’s COVID-19 Materials for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Care Providers toolkit includes:

Posters to download, print, and hang in your health facility
Fact sheets in multiple languages
Web pages with answers to common questions
Social stories, videos, and interactive activities

**VYF’s Shot of Prevention releases new blog post**

Vaccinate Your Family (VYF) hosts a blog, Shot of Prevention, where people come to discuss news and views on vaccines. Check out the most recent blog post on Shot of Prevention:

Immunocompromised? You Might Need Another Dose of COVID Vaccine (8/13/21)

Subscribe to Shot of Prevention to get the latest blog posts delivered to your inbox.

Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society offers two free educational tools for healthcare personnel: the Collaboration for Vaccine Education and Research’s web-based curriculum and the Vaccine Handbook App, 10th Edition

The Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society offers two free educational tools for healthcare professionals in their combined educational offering to help combat vaccine misinformation and address vaccine hesitancy. The first tool is the Comprehensive Vaccine Education Program: From Training to Practice, a combined educational offering to help combat vaccine misinformation and address vaccine hesitancy.

The program offers a web-based curriculum, Collaboration for Vaccine Education and Research (CoVER), established to enhance vaccine education that will increase healthcare professionals’ knowledge and competency for communicating with patients and patients’ families about vaccination. This curriculum consists of four online modules:

Vaccine Fundamentals: Topics include types of vaccines (e.g., live vs. inactive), vaccine components (e.g., antigens, adjuvants), and the current vaccination schedules
Vaccine Safety: A brief introduction to vaccine safety in the United States to increase provider confidence in vaccine recommendations in order to accurately answer questions from patients and families
Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPDs): This focuses on the clinical manifestations of VPDs and will introduce providers to the concepts of vaccine efficacy and vaccine effectiveness. This module uses clinical vignettes to enhance understanding of select VPDs.
Vaccine Communication: This provides communication methods and tips for communicating about vaccines in ways that lead to more effective conversations with patients and parents. It emphasizes methods for developing the skills and knowledge repertoire essential for dealing with preventing and addressing vaccine hesitancy.

In addition to the CoVER curriculum, the program also includes the newest edition of The Vaccine Handbook App, a mobile app that contains the full content of The Vaccine Handbook: A Practical Guide for Clinicians (“The Purple Book”). The Vaccine Handbook App is fully searchable; allows for bookmarking, highlighting, and annotation; and contains hyperlinks to valuable online content.

The free app may be found by searching the Apple App Store or Google Play Store for The Vaccine Handbook App or by using the following QR code.

Related Links

PIDS: Vaccine Education from Training to Practice web page
The Vaccine Handbook App in the Apple App Store
The Vaccine Handbook App in the Google Play Store

Coalitions in the News

These recent articles feature coalition activities and other stories of interest to coalitions

New York Times: Los Angeles Mandates Vaccines for Students 12 and Older (9/10/21)
NBC: Federal Vaccination Data Show Mixed Record on Equity (9/6/21)
U.S. News: School Vaccine Mandates: Here They Come (8/31/21)
Yahoo! Finance: Phalen Leadership Academies and Indiana Immunization Coalition to Host Free Community Vaccine Clinic Aug. 26th (8/24/21)
KBIA: Drop in Childhood Immunizations Worries Pediatricians (8/19/21)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Missouri Immunization Coalition Lands Contract to Increase COVID-19 Vaccination Rates (8/16/21)

Announcements

The White House releases strategy to combat COVID-19 and reduce the number of unvaccinated Americans

On September 9, the White House released a six-pronged, comprehensive national strategy to combat COVID-19:

Vaccinating the Unvaccinated

Requires all employers with 100+ employees to ensure their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly
Requires vaccinations for all federal workers and for millions of contractors that do business with the federal government
Requires COVID-⁠19 vaccinations for over 17 million health care workers at Medicare and Medicaid participating hospitals and other health care settings
Calls on large entertainment venues to require proof of vaccination or testing for entry
Requires employers to provide paid time off to get vaccinated

Further Protecting the Vaccinated

Implementation of this plan depends on authorization of boosters by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and recommendations by the CDC’s independent Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
- Provides easy access to booster shots for all eligible Americans
- Ensures Americans know where to get a booster

Keeping Schools Safely Open

Requires staff in Head Start programs, Department of Defense schools, and Bureau of Indian Education-operated schools to be vaccinated
Calls on all states to adopt vaccine requirements for all school employees
Provides additional funding to school districts for safe school reopening, including backfilling salaries and other funding withheld by states for implementing COVID safety measures
Uses the Department of Education’s full legal authority to protect students’ access to in-person instruction
Gets students and school staff tested regularly
Provides every resource to the FDA to support timely review of vaccines for individuals under the age of 12

Increasing Testing & Requiring Masking

Mobilizes industry to expand easy-to-use testing production
Makes at-home tests more affordable
Sends free rapid, at-home tests to food banks and community health centers
Expands free, pharmacy testing
Continues to require masking for interstate travel and double fines
Continues to require masking on federal property

Protecting Our Economic Recovery

New support for small businesses impacted by COVID-⁠19
Streamlines the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness process
Launches the Community Navigator Program to connect small businesses to the help they need

Improving Care for those with COVID-19

Increases support for COVID-burdened hospitals
Gets life-saving monoclonal antibody treatment to those who need it
Expands the pool of health care professionals providing treatment by deploying federal monoclonal antibody strike teams

In the weeks ahead, the Administration will announce additional steps.

Related Links

The White House: Path Out of the Pandemic: President Biden’s COVID-19 Action Plan
The White House: Executive Order on Requiring Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccination for Federal Employees
www.vaccines.gov website

Stay up to date by subscribing to IAC Express, encourage your coalition’s members to subscribe to IAC’s IZ Coalitions Network News, and please make sure your coalition’s information is up to date on immunizationcoalitions.org, the website of the National Network of Immunization Coalitions

Be sure you’re subscribed to IAC Express!
IAC Express is the free weekly e-newsletter produced by the Immunization Action Coalition (IAC). IAC Express keeps you informed about new and updated vaccine recommendations from CDC and new vaccine licensures by the FDA. You’ll read about newly posted Vaccine Information Statements and their translations, and new immunization education materials from IAC, CDC, AAP, and others. It also provides updates on online and in-person educational opportunities, many offering free continuing education credit. To subscribe, simply provide your name and email address at www.immunize.org/subscribe. We will never share your contact information.

Urge your coalition members to sign up for IZ Coalitions Network News!
IZ Coalitions Network News is a monthly e-newsletter for the National Network of Immunization Coalitions that features news of interest to immunization coalitions and nonprofit organizations, including advocacy opportunities, legislative efforts, immunization resources, educational offerings, and local, state, and national conference information. IZ Coalitions Network News is available to coalition members and nonprofit staff, and all people who work with immunization coalitions. To subscribe, send a request to info@immunizationcoalitions.org asking to be included. The National Network of Immunization Coalitions is a project of the Immunization Action Coalition.

Make sure your coalition is listed and your information is up to date on immunizationcoalitions.org
The National Network for Immunization Coalitions website at www.immunizationcoalitions.org is a place to learn about immunization coalitions and nonprofit organizations, their locations, missions, activities, newsletters, and how to engage with them. The website promotes the activities of immunization coalitions and nonprofits, offers resources of importance to the network, and provides a searchable online database of local, state, regional, and national immunization coalitions. Interested supporters of immunization can find contacts, resources, ideas, and volunteer opportunities. There are now 142 immunization coalitions and nonprofits listed on this website; view their pages here. If your coalition is not listed, or your information needs to be updated, please email info@immunizationcoalitions.org.

New coalitions and nonprofits are encouraged to include their information on the National Network for Immunization Coalitions website. Updated information can be added at any time by emailing info@immunizationcoalitions.org.

Kelly L. Moore, MD, MPH
Editor-in-Chief

Litjen (L.J) Tan, MS, PhD
Chief Policy and Partnerships Officer

Lisa Jacques-Carroll, MA
Coalitions Network Project Manager

Taryn Chapman, MS
Contributing Editor

Marian Deegan, JD
Contributing Editor

Julie R. Murphy, MA
Senior Administrator for Grants and Leadership

Robin VanOss
Technical Reviewer

The Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works to increase immunization rates and prevent disease by creating and distributing educational materials for health professionals and the public that enhance the delivery of safe and effective immunization services. The Coalition also facilitates communication about the safety, efficacy, and use of vaccines within the broad immunization community of patients, parents, health care organizations, and government health agencies. Click here for more information on IAC.