Kathleen Amos, MLIS, Assistant Director, Academic/Practice Linkages, Public Health Foundation
In March 2019, the Public Health Foundation (PHF), in collaboration with the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hosted Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of National Infant Immunization Week, a webinar highlighting National Infant Immunization Week (NIIW) planning tools, digital communication resources, and CDC activities planned for the week.
The nearly 500 webinar participants in attendance learned about these resources, heard lessons learned from building community partnerships to support infant immunization, and shared their questions and comments. Read on to learn more about these questions and their answers.
Webinar Participants’ Questions & Answers
Q: Do you think that the increase in unvaccinated children has anything to do with vaccine hesitancy?
A: Some children might be unvaccinated or undervaccinated because of choices made by parents, but CDC’s data suggest that many of these parents do want to vaccinate their children, but they may not be able to get vaccines for them. They may face hurdles, like not having a healthcare professional nearby, not having time to get their children to a doctor, and/or thinking they cannot afford vaccines. Unvaccinated children in the 2017 National Immunization Survey-Child were disproportionately uninsured.
Q: Jenny mentioned that lack of access to healthcare is a large barrier to immunization for infants. Are there resources or communication messaging to address this, maybe for leadership or the public?
Q: Will #NIIW be used as well? Or is #ivax2protect just for the Twitter storm and Instagram Q&A?
A: In the past, many organizations and partners have used #NIIW during the week. However, the only hashtag that we’re officially promoting this year is #ivax2protect. Of course, you are welcome to use the #NIIW hashtag on your tweets in addition to #ivax2protect if you would like.
Q: Website for videos again please.
Q: Is Men B still recommended or required?
A: Vaccination requirements are set by states. Please contact your state health department for details about meningococcal vaccination requirements in your state. CDC makes vaccine recommendations. Currently, the quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine is routinely recommended for 11-12 year olds. Teens and young adults (16 through 23 year olds) may also be vaccinated with a serogroup B meningococcal vaccine (2 or 3 doses depending on brand), preferably at 16 through 18 years old.
Q: I feel like CDC is behind the times in just orienting this to moms. Dads should not be sidelined from this – logo, speaker only addressing moms. Dads are at prenatal classes, bringing infants and older kids for healthcare, decision makers, etc.
A: We agree that fathers play an important role in their children’s health. CDC includes fathers in our audience research activities. We also use images of fathers in many of our campaign materials, including our recent “How Vaccines Work”
animated videos and many of our social media posts.
Q: Could you explain how you tie in immunizations with a baby shower event?
A: With baby showers, you're expecting a new baby and oftentimes our communication efforts go towards pregnant women and infants. We also tie it in as this is part of an infant’s overall health, and this is what is necessary and what is best as we are welcoming new babies into the family.
Q: How do you determine how much money should be asked of sponsors to host an NIIW event?
A: We have an annual sponsorship document that lists all sponsorship opportunities for the year. We have different sponsorship levels ranging from $500-2,000, with different benefits.
Q: Why do you have activities occurring during the baby shower events?
A: We have activities to better engage with the families, and help start a conversation with the parents.
Visit
PHF's Immunization Center to access additional immunization webinars featuring CDC experts, as well as the schedule of upcoming immunization events.