For this month’s health departments update, we’re talking about vaccines and getting children ready for school. WNIN’s Tim Jagielo spoke with Charissa Shuetz of the Vanderburgh County Health Department and Merrit Bates-Thomas of the Green River Health District of western Kentucky.
To listen to the 'wrap' version, click below
Timothy Jagielo
We're here to talk about vaccines. And so what vaccines are we're talking about, in the middle of July?
Merritt Bates-Thomas
“We're talking about back to school season, which is typically a time when parents or guardians are considering Well-child exams, and finding out if their children are up to date for their vaccinations.
TJ
And from the health department's perspective, why are vaccines important?
Charissa Shuetz
Vaccines help prevent disease from spreading, and being proactive to try to prevent that before it gets too far. And it's basically just to protect the overall community from from disease.
TJ
When school starts, what other diseases come up again, that you've seen, that might have been prevented by vaccines?
MBT
Well, one of the common vaccines that I think of is the flu vaccine, which many times people tend to ignore or not think about pursuing getting that vaccine, and you see flu then go through schools, affecting both staff and students in sometimes school systems even consider closing due to high absenteeism.
CS
Yeah, I would say that flu is what comes to my mind too, whenever we think about things that can spread pretty easily, whenever so many people get into a group together, like in the school systems.
TJ
What would you say to somebody who's experiencing some vaccine hesitation? Or have concerns about maybe side effects of the vaccine? What would you say to them?
CS
I would say, make sure that if you have questions, or you have concerns that you talk to your doctor, or you can call your local health department and talk to somebody who works in the clinic, and does immunizations, to kind of work through what your concerns are, and they can give you more information and answer your questions to help make that choice.
MBT
And the key thing is making that informed choice based on all of the evidence that's available; all the facts. And moving forward then with that decision.
TJ
School around here starts in about four weeks. How are the health departments recommending that parents get their children ready?
MBT
All of our clinics in Green River District in all seven of our county clinics have availability for appointments for Well Child Exams, as well as vaccines for those who don't have insurance coverage. Those are the vaccines that we would be providing. Well Child Exams are for anyone who would like to receive those services from us. So reaching out going ahead scheduling that appointment, not waiting until the last minute when those appointments might not be as readily available.
CS
Yeah, I agree. Our health department offers appointments for the vaccines for back to school, they'll check your child's record, make sure that they have everything they need or let you know what they're still needing to be in compliance with what's required.
TJ
Well, what tends to happen during a Well Child exam, why are they important?
MBT
Well, child exams are really that first line of defense, if you will, they're a great preventive step. And they can help health care providers guide parents about what to expect during developmental stages. So that parents are aware of what to be looking out for what the norms are in terms of raising children, what they can expect and to cautionary information around developmental delays, if parents might be noticing things that they think are unusual for their child so that they can better communicate with their health care provider and guide their children along a path to health and wellness as well.
To listen to the extended interview, click below:
TJ
You've kind of already touched on this, but why are vaccines an important to the health department, for the students, for the families, for the staff, and maybe a little bit about what vaccines we're talking about this time of year.
MBT
Okay, so, first and foremost, I think if we look at the history of vaccines, they've helped us eliminate virtually eliminate so many diseases that at one time, maybe killed or injured hundreds of thousands of people. And I think as time passes and we tend to lose sight of that, that maybe the priority we place on the importance of vaccines can get pushed aside a bit, you move forward and you go through something like a pandemic, where we were so socially isolated before the emergence of the vaccines.
And granted, those vaccines were being unrolled, and we were rolling up our sleeves to receive them. And looking at different ages and stages in terms of the availability, the key thing to keep in mind is, you know, we're looking at mitigating disease spread, and keeping it from the most vulnerable people who are immunocompromised, and those who stand to suffer the most, whether they're vaccinated or not.
The other key thing to keep in mind around vaccinations is they don't completely prevent disease, but they reduce the likelihood of the severity of that disease against which you're immunized.
CS
And like I think I mentioned earlier, but, you know, school systems in the schools have so many people, and everybody is so close together, that disease can spread quickly when you're in a setting like that. And as Merritt said, getting the vaccines can help prevent the spread from people and provide herd immunity, really.
TJ
Well, COVID is still here, people are still dying from it. What is it? What is what is what's the pediatric COVID vaccine that's being recommended now and what are the what's the guidance.
MBT
So the general guidance for a child that doesn't have their pediatric COVID vaccination — follow up with your health care provider. And again, like we had mentioned, just checking around the evidence and the efficacy of that vaccine. It is continuing to evolve, and likely for children that are vaccinated against COVID and up to date with whatever vaccine they may have received.
The key thing to keep in mind is that we're anticipating some sort of booster for all of us. But the key thing in closed environments — contained environments like schools, especially now that folks aren't masking, there can be a lot of coughing, a lot of sneezing, different things going on in those classrooms. And one of the best ways to prevent some of the disease spread is to stay up to date with those vaccinations.
TJ
How do you schedule an appointment? And what can you learn before you go to an appointment?
CS
So for the Vanderburgh, county health department, you can go to our website, which is yourVCHD.org. And there's a schedule on there for when we're doing vaccine appointments. We also have a mobile clinic that can go around Vanderburgh County, it has different locations that it goes to, and there's a schedule online for that to where they can do vaccines, you can also call us at 812 435-2400.
And as schools start going back to session, we'll be doing clinics around different schools in Vanderburgh. County to for the students who aren't up to date yet, but school has started. So a few different options for sure.
MBT
And for Green River District with seven counties, seven clinics, you can go to our website health department.org Find the clinic in your county and call if you need more information, or you know if we're talking about someone who does have insurance coverage, checking in with their health care provider to get that vaccine information as well.
TJ
Great. Thank you both so much for your time as always.
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