IAC is proud that the award-winning PBS television documentary series, Visionaries, hosted by Sam Waterston, is including the story of Dr. Deborah L. Wexler, founder and executive director of the Immunization Action Coalition (IAC), in its 24th season. The Visionaries episode, Protecting Health: Saving Lives, showcases Dr. Wexler’s commitment to supporting the nation’s healthcare professionals with immunization education information and materials.  
 
The 30-minute documentary follows Dr. Wexler’s passion from its origins in 1988 to 1990 while she provided care to undervaccinated children in the Hmong community of St. Paul, Minnesota, through to her founding and continued leadership of IAC, a nationally renowned provider of immunization education resources.
 
In 1989–90, undervaccination of children took its toll on the nation with a resurgence of measles, killing 123 people, primarily children younger than 5 years of age, including three Hmong 1-year-olds in Saint Paul. Dr. Wexler responded by establishing the Immunization Action Coalition to educate and advocate for the importance of vaccination. The Visionaries documentary beautifully captures Wexler's passion for prevention and her ability to attract a circle of preeminent vaccination experts to carry out the mission of IAC.  



Protecting Health: Saving Lives makes a powerful case for vaccination, addressing and defusing the fears that fuel the antivaccine movement, showcasing stories of vaccine-preventable disease, and recognizing the science that has saved millions of lives through vaccination.

Today, the success of vaccination in preventing deadly diseases is threatened by a small but vocal number of individuals opposed to vaccination. It is hoped that this Visionaries documentary will help allay concerns and widen the understanding of how important vaccines are.

Protecting Health: Saving Lives will premiere on many PBS stations nationwide beginning in late-August, but you can watch it right now on IAC’s website at www.immunize.org/aboutus/iac-film-history.asp. We’d very much appreciate it if you’d circulate this link to your immunization colleagues and friends through member newsletters, e-mail listservs, social media channels, conferences and web-based events, and web pages.

To learn more about Visionaries, visit www.visionaries.org.

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As an important proactive measure in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of California will require all students and faculty to receive flu vaccine this fall across all 10 major campuses. Two paragraphs from the press release are reprinted below.

To support the health and well-being of UC students, faculty and staff and our communities, the University of California, in consultation with UC Health leadership, has issued a systemwide executive order requiring all members of the UC community to receive an influenza immunization before Nov. 1, 2020....

The executive order requires the vaccination for all faculty and staff who are working at a UC location. The university already has a clear policy on immunizations for students, and this action adds influenza to existing vaccination requirements for them, and extends the requirement to faculty and staff beyond those which presently exist for all UC health care workers....

We are now aware of several other colleges and universities that require influenza vaccination for students for the 2020–21 academic year, including University of Miami, Purdue University, and the four primary campuses and extensions of the University of Tennessee system. 

If you know of additional colleges or universities that require influenza vaccination, please send the name of the institution, as well as a link to the relevant policy (if available) to [email protected].