On July 13, Immunize​.org hosted a live, 1-hour webinar, Hepatitis B-Gone! Implementing Universal Adult Screening and Vaccination. Your Practical Questions Answered, featuring Carolyn Wester, MD, MPH, Director of CDC’s Division of Viral Hepatitis, and Immunize​.org’s Kelly L. Moore, MD, MPH. The webinar addresses the value of universal adult hepatitis B screening and vaccination. Panelists also answer viewers’ questions about the unique practical considerations for healthcare providers when implementing the 2022 recommendations for universal catch-up adult hepatitis B vaccination through age 59 and the 2023 CDC guidelines for universal adult screening for hepatitis B infection in their practice.

The webinar video is now available on our website for on-demand viewing. Please view and share this important webinar with your colleagues. Immunize​.org will release a summary question-and-answer clinical resource companion to this webinar soon. Look for an announcement in IZ Express.
                  


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CDC data show that kindergarten vaccination coverage steadily declined for all vaccines over the past two school years, from 95% to 93% nationally. At least 250,000 kindergarteners in 2022 were potentially unprotected against measles, mumps, and rubella. This is the lowest U.S. kindergarten routine vaccination coverage in the last decade. Undervaccinated and unvaccinated children are at risk for serious illness and can propagate community outbreaks of disease. 

As part of the response to the pandemic-related declines in routine vaccination, CDC launched a nationwide Back to School with Routine Vaccines: Let’s Catch Up campaign running through September.

The digital ads aim to keep routine child vaccinations top of mind among parents of children age 4–12 years. All communication assets, such as flyers and social media posts, are downloadable and adaptable so partners can disseminate them through websites, offices, and social media channels. 
                  


Visit CDC's Back to School with Routine Vaccines: Let’s Catch Up campaign main page.                      

On July 13, HHS issued a press release announcing plans to launch the Bridge Access Program for COVID-19 Vaccines this fall. The program will help millions of uninsured and underinsured American adults continue to have access to no-cost COVID-19 vaccinations. Access to COVID-19 vaccines at no cost is made possible for other adults through Medicare, Medicaid, or commercial insurance. Children have access through commercial insurance or the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program. A portion of the press release appears below.
 
The pandemic highlighted longstanding barriers to adult vaccination, including lack of accessibility, lack of availability, and lack of confidence. Under the management and oversight of CDC, the Bridge Access Program – for a limited time – will allow adults who are uninsured or underinsured to receive free COVID-19 vaccinations. . . .

CDC will purchase COVID-19 vaccines and allocate them, along with the funding needed to implement this new program, through CDC’s established network of state and local immunization programs. These partners will then facilitate distribution of these vaccines to participating community-based providers, including local health departments and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)-supported health centers. In order to broaden access, CDC is also working closely with select national pharmacy chains, as well as vaccine manufacturers, to enable uninsured adults to receive free COVID-19 vaccines at participating retail pharmacy locations. . . .
 
It’s important to note that the Bridge Access Program serves as a “temporary bridge” and is scheduled to end in December 2024. A longer-term solution is the Vaccines for Adults (VFA) program, proposed in both the FY 2023 and 2024 Presidential Budgets, which would create a permanent initiative modeled after the successful Vaccines for Children (VFC) program, and would cover all recommended vaccinations at no cost for uninsured adults. This proposal has not yet been enacted into law.          

Immunize​.org’s social media program highlights our educational resources for today’s vaccinators. This week, our featured episode from the Ask the Experts Video Series is Vaccination of Patients on Steroids. This is available on our YouTube channel, along with our full collection of quick video answers to popular Ask the Experts questions.

Our social media channels feature our most popular printable resources, our Ask the Experts Video Series, and announcements important to frontline vaccinators. Like, follow, and share Immunize​.org’s social media accounts. Encourage colleagues and others interested in vaccination to do likewise:

• Facebook at ImmunizeOrg
• Instagram at ImmunizeOrg
• LinkedIn at Immunize​.org
• Twitter at ImmunizeOrg
• YouTube at ImmunizeOrg

Immunize​.org's Influenza Vaccination Honor Roll recognizes facilities that take a stand for patient safety by implementing policies for mandatory healthcare personnel influenza vaccination. There are now 1,331 organizations enrolled. Since June 14, 2023, Immunize​.org welcomed one additional healthcare organization.

• Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation, Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands 

Eligibility:

• Eligible organizations: Hospitals, long-term care facilities, medical practices, pharmacies, professional organizations, health departments, and other government entities
• Requirements:
  • Your policy must require influenza vaccination for all staff
  • The application must describe measures to prevent transmission of influenza from unvaccinated personnel to patients (e.g., masking for the entire work shift)

• Immunize​.org: List of Influenza Vaccination Honorees, all healthcare settings, by state
• Immunize​.org: Long-Term Care/Assisted Living Influenza Vaccination Honorees by state
• Immunize​.org: Influenza Vaccination Honor Roll program, including:
  • Position statements from professional societies and leading healthcare organizations in support of mandatory influenza vaccination
  • Application form for Influenza Vaccination Honor Roll
• Immunize​.org: Honor Roll for Patient Safety web page

In this week's Spotlight, we summarize resources at Immunize​.org that focus on vaccination during pregnancy.

Handouts: Pregnancy and Vaccines main page offers free access to pregnancy and vaccination-related handouts and fact sheets for healthcare professionals and the public. All items are ready to print, copy, and distribute widely.

Screening Checklists about Vaccine Contraindications and Precautions main page links you to forms that patients fill out to expedite assessment of vaccination needs and contraindications. These include the labor and delivery HBsAg admission checklist. 

Adult Vaccination main page contains all the Immunize​.org handouts that pertain to adult vaccination. These include the Summary of Recommendations for Adult Immunization that highlights the CDC recommendations for vaccination during pregnancy.

CDC Schedules main page provides printable PDF versions of the recommended immunization schedules for adults. The first column in Table 2 of the adult schedule lists the vaccines to give or defer during pregnancy. 

These recent articles convey the potential risks of vaccine-preventable diseases and the importance of vaccination.

• CNN: CDC Facing Major Funding Cuts, with Direct Impact on State and Local Health Departments (7/14/23)
• NPR: New Malaria Vaccine Offers a Ray of Hope to Nigeria. There’s Just One Thing… (7/11/23)
• Gavi: Childhood Vaccination Needs Ambitious Investment Now. This Is Why. (7/11/23)
• Freedom Online: COVID-19: UNICEF Report Says 67m Children Missed Immunization in 2 Years (7/9/23)

Immunize​.org recently updated Vaccines with Diluents: How to Use Them, adding two recently licensed vaccines for RSV (Abrysvo and Arexvy) that use diluents in their preparation.

Related Links

• Immunize​.org: Handouts: Administering Vaccines main page
• Immunize​.org: Handouts for Patients and Staff main page, where you can sort materials by topic, vaccine, or language
• Immunize​.org: Educational Materials for Patients and Staff—an alphabetical listing of more than 230 ready-to-print staff educational materials and patient handouts

The Amazon Bookstore now offers Flash Cards: Vaccines & Immunization—2023, by John D. Grabenstein, PhD, and Laurie A. Grabenstein, BSN. John Grabenstein is the managing editor of IZ Express; however, this new resource is an independent product. The new e-book consists of 210 fact-filled electronic flash cards. These flash cards offer vaccine training in bite-sized pieces. The book doubles as a concise, portable reference book. Six major sections help clinical staff excel in real-world practice:

• Preventable Diseases – Clinical Features, Microbiology, Transmission
• Vaccine Products – Routine, Travel, and Niche
• Antibody Products – Passive Immunization
• Case Studies – by Age, Health Status, Occupation, and Personal Risk Factors
• Travel Health – Routes of Exposure to Risks, Self-Care, Consults, Geographic Foci
• Clinical Tools – Dozens of Tables, Lists, and Tips

Flash Cards: Vaccines & Immunization—2023 can be read at read.amazon.com or with the free Kindle app for iOS, Android, Mac, and PC. E-books use flowable text to present content in the format preferred by each reader. The e-book includes instructions on highlighting passages and taking notes within the app.

Flash Cards: Vaccines & Immunization—2023 is priced at $9.99. Each edition will be auto-updated several times as new vaccines are licensed or ACIP recommendations change. To order, go to amazon.com, search for Flash Cards: Vaccines & Immunization by Grabenstein. A detailed table of contents and sample pages appear at www.vaccinedynamics.com.
 

In the June 29 issue, Vaccine published Vaccine Hesitancy in Pregnant Women: A Narrative Review. A portion of the abstract appears below.

Pregnant women are often at higher risk for morbidity and mortality due to contracting vaccine-preventable diseases that result in adverse pregnancy outcomes such as spontaneous abortion, preterm births, and congenital fetal defects. For example, health care provider recommendation is correlated with maternal acceptance of influenza vaccination, however, up to 33% of pregnant women remain unvaccinated irrespective of provider recommendation. Vaccine hesitancy is a multifactorial problem that both the medical and public health systems need to address synergistically. Vaccine education should incorporate balanced perspectives to deliver vaccine education. . . . Results from the literature show that the three most common reasons for vaccine hesitancy include: i.) fear of side effects or adverse events; ii.) lack of confidence in vaccine safety; iii.) low perception of being at high risk of infection during pregnancy and/or not having previously received the vaccination when not pregnant. We conclude that vaccine hesitancy is dynamic therefore people do not always hold a static level of vaccine hesitancy. People may move between a continuum of vaccine hesitancy for a multifactorial reasons [sic]. A framework, characterized by levels of vaccine hesitancy before and during pregnancy, was constructed to help providers find balance between promoting individual health and public health while providing vaccine education.

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Vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) manufactured by Pfizer (Abrysvo) and GSK (Arexvy) were recently licensed by FDA and recommended (with shared clinical decision-making) by CDC for adults age 60 years and older. Vaccine manufacturer GSK will host a webinar titled Virtual Briefing on Adult Immunization and RSV with GSK, July 20, 12:00–1:00 p.m. (ET). The speaker will be Leonard Friedland, MD, director of scientific affairs and public health, GSK. During the webinar, Dr. Friedland will share an update about GSK’s new initiative aimed at reducing health inequities in the United States. He will also review respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and new disease education efforts. 

The webinar is designed for members of the vaccine advocacy and public health community.

Preregistration is required. There is no fee to participate. 

Register for the webinar.