Issue 1,564: May 5, 2021
Top Stories
Featured Resources
Journal Articles and Newsletters
Immunization PSAs from the Archive
Top Stories
ACIP meets today, May 5, to discuss rabies and dengue vaccines; watch live or listen via telephone
A live, virtual meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will be held today, May 5, 11:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. (ET). The agenda is posted and features rabies and dengue vaccine discussions. No registration is required to watch the live ACIP meeting or listen via telephone. Opportunities for public comment are described at the website.
Bookmark this link to watch this and future virtual ACIP meetings.
Related Link
- ACIP gateway page for recordings and content from previous meetings, as well as information about future meetings
“Updated Recommendations from the ACIP for Use of Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) COVID-19 Vaccine after Reports of Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome among Vaccine Recipients—United States, April 2021” published in MMWR
CDC published Updated Recommendations from the ACIP for Use of Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) COVID-19 Vaccine after Reports of Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome among Vaccine Recipients—United States, April 2021 in MMWR on April 30. Portions of the summary appear below.
On April 13, 2021, CDC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended pausing use of the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine after reports of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) among vaccine recipients....
On April 23, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices concluded that the benefits of resuming Janssen COVID-19 vaccination among persons aged ≥18 years outweighed the risks and reaffirmed its interim recommendation under FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization, which includes a new warning for rare clotting events among women aged 18–49 years....
Resuming use of the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine will ensure flexibility, choice, and improved access. Education about TTS risk with Janssen COVID-19 vaccine is critical.
Access the MMWR article in HTML format or in PDF format.
Related Link
- MMWR's gateway page provides access to MMWR Weekly, MMWR Recommendations and Reports, MMWR Surveillance Summaries, and MMWR Supplements
CDC updates “Interim Clinical Considerations for Use of COVID-19 Vaccines Currently Authorized in the United States” on April 27
CDC updated their Interim Clinical Considerations for Use of COVID-19 Vaccines Currently Authorized in the United States on April 27. These clinical considerations provide additional information to healthcare providers and public health officials on use of COVID-19 vaccines.
CDC summarized the changes as follows:
- The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ updated interim recommendation for the use of the Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) COVID-19 vaccine.
- Clarification that COVID-19 vaccination is recommended for all people 16 years and older added to key points and vaccine administration.
- Updated information about the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine added to background
- Requirements to be considered fully vaccinated added to vaccine administration and interchangeability of COVID-19 vaccine products.
- New section added for people vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccines not authorized in the United States.
- Clarification on COVID-19 vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 infection. People with prolonged post-COVID-19 symptoms should be offered COVID-19 vaccination.
- New section added on antiviral therapy and COVID-19 vaccination.
- Information on requesting a consultation from the Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment COVIDvax project added to considerations for vaccination of people with certain underlying medical conditions.
- New section added on considerations for use of the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine in certain populations
- Updated information and recommendations for vaccination of pregnant or lactating people.
- Updated recommendations for vaccination of children and adolescents.
- Updated information related to axillary lymphadenopathy added to patient counseling for mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.
- Updated information on the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine added to patient counseling.
- Updated recommendations related to contraindications (polysorbate allergy) and precautions (most people with a precaution can and should be administered vaccine) for COVID-19 vaccines.
View the CDC’s Interim Clinical Considerations for Use of COVID-19 Vaccines Currently Authorized in the United States web page.
Related Links
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“Safety Monitoring of the Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) COVID-19 Vaccine—United States, March–April 2021” published in MMWR Early Release
CDC published Safety Monitoring of the Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) COVID-19 Vaccine—United States, March–April 2021 in MMWR Early Release on April 30. Portions of the summary appear below.
An Emergency Use Authorization of the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine was granted February 27, 2021. Use was paused during April 12–23, 2021, after detection of six cases of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST).
...By April 21, nearly 8 million doses of the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine had been administered. Review of safety monitoring data found that 97% of reported reactions after vaccine receipt were nonserious, consistent with preauthorization clinical trials data. Seventeen thrombotic events with thrombocytopenia have been reported, including three non-CVST events.
...Ongoing monitoring for rare and common adverse events after vaccination is important for evaluating the balance between risks and benefits for each authorized COVID-19 vaccine, including the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine.
Access the MMWR article in HTML format or in PDF format.
Related Link
- MMWR's gateway page provides access to MMWR Weekly, MMWR Recommendations and Reports, MMWR Surveillance Summaries, and MMWR Supplements
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CDC updates public health recommendations for fully vaccinated people
CDC updated its Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People on April 27. These recommendations are based on the level of community spread of SARS-CoV-2, the proportion of the population that is fully vaccinated, and the rapidly evolving science on COVID-19 vaccines.
In this guidance, people are considered fully vaccinated for COVID-19 if there has been more than two weeks since they received either
- Their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, or
- Their (single) dose of the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine (Johnson & Johnson)
In their Summary of Recent Updates section of the "Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People" web page, CDC includes:
- Guiding principles for fully vaccinated people are now provided
- Underscores that immunocompromised people need to consult their healthcare provider about these recommendations, even if fully vaccinated
- Fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask outdoors, except in certain crowded settings and venues
- Clarification that fully vaccinated workers no longer need to be restricted from work following an exposure as long as they are asymptomatic
- Fully vaccinated residents of non-healthcare congregate settings no longer need to quarantine following a known exposure
- Fully vaccinated asymptomatic people without an exposure may be exempted from routine screening testing, if feasible
View CDC's Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People web page.
Related Link
“Anxiety-Related Adverse Event Clusters after Janssen COVID-19 Vaccination—Five U.S. Mass Vaccination Sites, April 2021” published in MMWR Early Release
CDC published Anxiety-Related Adverse Event Clusters after Janssen COVID-19 Vaccination—Five U.S. Mass Vaccination Sites, April 2021 in MMWR Early Release on April 30. Portions of the summary appear below.
Syncope and other anxiety-related events can occur after vaccination and have been reported to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) for other vaccines.
...Five mass vaccination sites reported 64 anxiety-related events, including 17 events of syncope (fainting) after receipt of Janssen COVID-19 vaccine. The reporting rates of syncope to VAERS after Janssen COVID-19 and influenza vaccines (2019–20) were 8.2 and 0.05 per 100,000 doses, respectively.
...Vaccine providers should be aware of anxiety-related events after vaccination and observe all COVID-19 vaccine recipients for any adverse reactions for at least 15 minutes after vaccine administration.
Access the MMWR article in HTML format or in PDF format.
Related Link
- MMWR's gateway page provides access to MMWR Weekly, MMWR Recommendations and Reports, MMWR Surveillance Summaries, and MMWR Supplements
“Effectiveness of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Vaccines against COVID-19 among Hospitalized Adults Aged ≥65 Years—United States, January–March 2021” published in MMWR Early Release
CDC published Effectiveness of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Vaccines against COVID-19 among Hospitalized Adults Aged ≥65 Years—United States, January–March 2021 in MMWR Early Release on April 28. A portion of the media statement appears below.
Both mRNA COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna) authorized and recommended in the United States protect against COVID-19-related hospitalization among adults 65 years and older, according to a new CDC assessment that finds fully vaccinated adults 65 years and older were 94% less likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than people of the same age who were not vaccinated. People 65 and older who were partially vaccinated were 64% less likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than people who were not vaccinated. People were considered “partially vaccinated” two weeks after their first dose of mRNA vaccine and “fully vaccinated” two weeks after their second dose.
...The assessment looked at hospitalizations in two U.S. hospital networks covering 24 hospitals in 14 states. Vaccine effectiveness was assessed by comparing the odds of COVID-19 vaccination among hospitalized people who tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19 (these were case-patients) versus those who tested negative (these were controls). Among 417 participants in the assessment, there were 187 case-patients and 230 controls. Close to half of the patients were more than 75 years old.
...As expected, the assessment confirmed that vaccination provided no protection to people who had received their first dose fewer than two weeks earlier. It takes two weeks for the body to form an immune response after vaccination.
...This assessment is one of many planned COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness assessments to evaluate the real-world benefits of COVID-19 vaccines. Results from these assessments will help inform vaccine policy decisions aimed at saving lives and decreasing serious COVID-19 disease as much as possible.
Related Links
IAC Spotlight! These updated IAC educational materials and web pages were released during March and April
IAC Express regularly provides readers with information about IAC’s new and updated educational materials for healthcare professionals and handouts for patients. All IAC materials are free to distribute.
In case you missed them during recent weeks, these helpful materials were announced:
IAC’s Updated Materials for Clinicians
Updated COVID-19 Web Pages
Related Links
Wonderful gift for Mother’s and Father’s Days! Order IAC’s “I Got My COVID-19 Vaccine” buttons—stickers available, too
IAC now offers “I Got My COVID-19 Vaccine” buttons and stickers for purchase. Give them as gifts to family, friends, and colleagues. Place them on clothing, lab coats, uniforms, jackets, lanyards, ID badges, or backpacks to demonstrate confidence in COVID-19 vaccination.
Buttons: Wear them to reassure your patients and remind those around you to protect themselves from COVID-19. These are not just for people in health care! Give them to vaccinated people in your social network who are working to keep COVID-19 from spreading, such as your parents, hair stylist, grocer, teacher, and religious leader.
 
Stickers: Give away to COVID-19 vaccine recipients or vaccinated clinic staff!
- Description: Bright yellow stickers on a roll with an easy-peel-off back and perforations between stickers to make them easy to tear off and share
- Packaging: Roll of 200 stickers
- Dimension: 1.5" across
- To order: See Shop IAC: COVID-19 Vaccine Buttons and Stickers for quantity and pricing options
Please note: Through a separate program supported by CDC, public health departments and selected CDC nonprofit Vaccinate with Confidence campaign partners have been notified about how to receive limited supplies of these items at no cost.
For questions, call 651-647-9009 or email [email protected].
Related Links
Now available in Spanish! IAC’s “I Got My COVID-19 Vaccine” Facebook profile photo frame
Share your excitement about COVID-19 vaccination and inspire your friends! When you have received your COVID-19 vaccine, add IAC's new "I Got My COVID-19 Vaccine" Facebook photo frame to liven up your profile picture!
The photo frame (or marco de la foto) is now available in both English and Spanish.
You can obtain the frame in two ways:
Together we can end the COVID-19 pandemic!
CHOP’s VEC expands its “My COVID-19 Vaccine Experience” video series to include eight new Spanish-language videos
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's (CHOP) Vaccine Education Center has expanded its My COVID-19 Vaccine Experience video series to include Spanish translations of eight of its videos. The videos feature Latinx colleagues from CHOP talking about why they decided to get vaccinated or their experiences once they were vaccinated.
Share these videos with your friends, colleagues, and across social media!
Related Link
Use these Canadian and Mexican resources when you need COVID-19 vaccine information from neighboring countries
Vaccine clinic workers may encounter our neighbors to the north or south who have COVID-19 vaccine questions. These resources may help.
Canada:
Mexico:
- Gobierno de México: Vacunación COVID (common questions at top of web page; technical vaccine information and document links in lower half of web page)
- COFEPRIS (counterpart to FDA) Actions Regarding COVID-19: Acciones sobre COVID-19
IAC experts called on by news media
With vaccines in the news so much lately, journalists have sought out IAC experts to communicate the intricacies of running a quality vaccination program. Our insights have helped explain vaccines to the public and policy makers. We want to help them understand the complex work vaccinators do. We've reached mass markets and local stations, across the U.S. and overseas, via print, radio, television, blogs, and more. Here is a selection of our recent citations:
Related Link
Not-to-miss immunization articles in the news
These recent articles convey the potential risks of vaccine-preventable diseases and the importance of vaccination.
Featured Resources
CDC’s “Choosing Safer Activities” infographic for vaccinated and unvaccinated people is now available in five languages
CDC now offers its Choosing Safer Activities infographic in Chinese, English, Korean, Spanish, and Vietnamese. The infographic shows the recommended measures of mask-wearing for both COVID-19 vaccinated and unvaccinated people based on activity.
 
View the infographic in Chinese, English, Korean, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
Related Links
In IAC’s “Video of the Week,” former presidents and first ladies get their COVID-19 vaccines and discuss how being vaccinated will get us back to loved ones
In this inspiring public service announcement (PSA), former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and their first ladies are vaccinated against COVID-19 and they discuss how COVID-19 vaccinations will help get us back to the moments we miss and those we love.
AAP posts new, free vaccination infographics for social media
The American Academy of Pediatrics' (AAP) Childhood Immunization Support Program has developed 10 new, free vaccination infographics that you can download, print, broadcast, and use online. Based on values that resonate with many people not yet vaccinated––purity, liberty, and protection––the infographics are free on the AAP Immunization Campaigns and Toolkits web page.
Please share these infographics with your networks!
Related Links
AAP offers a Childhood Immunization Flipchart to aid healthcare providers when talking with parents. Request copies today!
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Childhood Immunization Support Program offers a Childhood Immunization Flipchart designed to help clinicians in conversations with patients and families. The flipchart focuses on routine vaccinations for children from birth to age six years and contains family-friendly infographics and provider speaking points for each of the 10 recommended vaccines.
The flipchart is mailed with a user guide, which includes suggestions for limiting the spread of germs on the flipchart during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
The AAP is sending flipcharts to those who request them at no charge, as supplies last. They will do their best to accommodate large orders, but they may be reduced, depending on demand.
Request copies of the flipcharts.
Related Link
Check out the www.Give2MenACWY.org website to enhance your efforts at increasing rates of MenACWY booster and other adolescent vaccinations
The website www.Give2MenACWY.org promotes the importance of adolescent vaccination and administering a booster dose of MenACWY vaccine at age 16.
Designed for healthcare professionals, the site incorporates materials and highlights the importance of all recommended vaccines for 16-year-olds. A simplified navigation structure makes locating information a breeze.
The colorful Give2MenACWY.org website is divided into five easy-to-access sections:
The site’s design categorizes materials according to whether they are primarily of interest to providers or to teens or their parents.
Visit Give2MenACWY.org and enjoy browsing (and deploying) its bountiful resources, brought to you by IAC's collaboration with Sanofi Pasteur.
Related Links
IAC’s “History through Film” web page features public television documentary about 30 years of IAC titled Protecting Health: Saving Lives. Please share.
The award-winning public television documentary series, Visionaries, hosted by Sam Waterston, features IAC in the episode Protecting Health: Saving Lives. This 30-minute film showcases IAC’s founder and executive director Dr. Deborah Wexler’s commitment to supporting the nation’s healthcare professionals with immunization education information and materials. Protecting Health: Saving Lives makes a powerful case for vaccination, addressing and defusing the fears that fuel the antivaccine movement, presenting stories of vaccine-preventable disease, and recognizing the science that has saved millions of lives through vaccination.
Protecting Health: Saving Lives is premiering on more than 100 local PBS stations nationwide in the months ahead, 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 your circulating the film by sharing this link with your colleagues and friends through member newsletters, e-mail listservs, social media channels, conferences and web-based events, and web pages.
Sharing Protecting Health: Saving Lives is easy! Just go to https://www.immunize.org/film or click on the film's image in the right column of IAC's immunize.org main page. Click the “share” button and choose the social media site where you’d like your friends, family, and colleagues to view the film.
To learn more about the PBS Visionaries series, visit www.visionaries.org.
Journal Articles and Newsletters
“BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine in a Nationwide Mass Vaccination Setting” published in JAMA
In the April 15 issue, New England Journal of Medicine published BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine in a Nationwide Mass Vaccination Setting. Data from Israel’s largest healthcare organization were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine. All persons vaccinated from 12/20/2020 to 2/1/2021 were matched to unvaccinated controls by demographic and clinical characteristics. Each study group included 596,618 persons.
Estimated vaccine effectiveness at 7 or more days after dose #2 appears below:
- Documented infection: 92%
- Symptomatic COVID-19: 94%
- Hospitalization: 87%
- Severe disease: 92%
The benefits were consistent across age groups, with slightly lower effectiveness values in persons with multiple coexisting conditions.
This study suggests that the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine is effective for a wide range of important COVID-19–related outcomes, a finding consistent with that of the pre-authorization clinical trial.
“Health Outcomes in Young Children following Pertussis Vaccination during Pregnancy” published in Pediatrics
In the May 2021 issue, Pediatrics published Health Outcomes in Young Children following Pertussis Vaccination during Pregnancy. In this study, all live births in Ontario, Canada, between April 2012 and March 2017 were included, and children were followed for up to 6 years.
Of the 625,643 live births, 12 045 (1.9%) were exposed to Tdap in utero. Exposure to Tdap vaccination in pregnancy was not associated with any increased risk of adverse health outcomes in early childhood, supporting the long-term safety of Tdap administration in pregnancy.
Immunization PSAs from the Archive
In this hope-filled PSA from 2006 by Every Child By Two, Dr. Walter Orenstein, former assistant surgeon general, explains that immunizations save lives
In this 2006 public service announcement (PSA) from Every Child By Two, Dr. Walter Orenstein, former assistant surgeon general, pediatrician, and father explains that immunizations are safe, effective, and save lives. This PSA is part of a collection curated by vaccine expert William L. Atkinson, MD, MPH.
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Video of the Week
Former Presidents and First Ladies: "It's Up to You." This PSA features former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and their First Ladies. We watch them each being vaccinated, and they discuss how COVID-19 vaccinations will help get us back to the moments we miss and those we love.
Follow Us
Technically Speaking
Read Dr. Wexler's column for the Vaccine Education Center's monthly newsletter, Vaccine Update
Vaccinating Adults:
A Step-by-Step Guide
Calendar of Events
Conferences, meetings, and training opportunities
Patient Record Cards
Record cards for patients -- child & teen, adult, and lifetime -- are printed on durable paper and sized to fit in a wallet when folded
DVD: Immunization Techniques
Every practice should have this award winning, "how-to" training video
Protect Newborns Guidebook
Editorial Information
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