The Immunization Partnership Staff

August is National Immunization Awareness Month and we are featuring a guest blog from The Immunization Partnership, who distributes resources to promote adult and child vaccinations across the state. Read more below to learn about their efforts and recommendations. As the state’s public health institute, we prioritize sharing both internal and external information that contributes to advancing the health of all.

August provides The Immunization Partnership the opportunity to reach out to parents and the public in general about the importance of keeping current on adult and children vaccines. By combining social media and traditional media messaging for National Immunization Awareness Month and Back to School, we can reach out to Texans in a variety of ways.

We made available to Texas county health districts and public health agencies a NIAM and Back to School proclamation template, which allows customization by inserting the name and title of the proclamation issuer, such as mayor or county judge. We also will provide targeted news releases about NIAM and Back to School, which include quotes from the local public health professional and our interim Executive Director. The local public health person can revise or extend the quote. We use the main news release, which includes only quotes from our interim Executive Director, for the rest of the state.

We are proud to announce the distribution of a series of English/Spanish animated videos we hope will answer COVID-19 vaccination questions and lead to more Texans exercising their right to bare arms and take a shot for Texas. Americagroup Texas funded the project, which The Immunization Partnership produced.

Misinformation, or simply the lack of information, regarding COVID-19 and the authorized vaccines has led to confusion and hesitancy. Hill Powell, our interim Executive Director, is excited about the role these videos can play in reducing the number of COVID-19 cases throughout Texas because they bring the right message at the right time. “The best way to counter relatively common misperceptions and misinformation, such as the belief that vaccines might change a person’s DNA, is through basic information about the vaccines and how they work. And these videos do just that.”
 
Katy Gore, our Coalitions and Education Program Manager, designed the videos that run about a minute or less. They not only explain the virus and the vaccines in a format we hope will dispel doubts but they also give doctors, nurses, and health professionals an opportunity to answer patients’ questions and concerns about the vaccines. “We want to create comfort with the vaccine among individual Texans, families, and communities,” Katy says.
 
The videos will run on a loop in the lobbies of Federally Qualified Health Clinics and in reception areas of Texas Community Health Centers members. Coastal Health and Wellness clinics in Galveston County are the first FQHCs to run the videos. We also will share them on social media and with other clinic systems across the state. We have the videos on our COVID-19 webpage. Contact Katy at kgore@immunizeusa.org if your organization would like the videos. They’re free!