Category: Vaccine

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Calder Biosciences, Inc., a next-generation vaccine company, has published an article that debuts and validates the application of Calder's '3D Vaxlock' platform technology. When applied to the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) F protein as a vaccine immunogen, Calder's 3D Vaxlock technology achieves an unprecedented 11X more potent immune response than the standard industry comparator.

Application of the technology not only dramatically improves potency but also improves the shelf-life of the vaccine at refrigerated temperatures, which will facilitate distribution and delivery.

The 11-fold higher responses are measured in terms of antibodies generated that neutralize the virus on contact, thus preventing infection. Calder's vaccine also demonstrates improvements in the quality of immune responses elicited since a greater proportion of the antibodies produced neutralize the virus.

2023 was an exciting year for developments in preventing RSV, given the groundbreaking achievements of GSK and Pfizer in gaining licensure of the first-ever RSV vaccines, Arexvy and Abrysvo, for use in the elderly and maternal vaccination. While these licensures have already done a great deal to bolster human health, the published data suggest that adults over 75 represent a patient population that could benefit greatly from additional potency improvements.

"There remains an urgent need for vaccines that provide 75+ older adults and the frail good protection. And protecting newborn children for a longer period through maternal vaccination also remains an important goal," said Florian Schdel, MD, a member of Calder's Scientific Advisory Board. In the Nature Communications manuscript, Calder demonstrates that a high dose of their RSV vaccine achieves responses in aged, immunosenescent animals equivalent to responses in the young animal control group.

Calder's 3D Vaxlock technology engineers zero-length carbon-carbon bonds between tyrosine residues in target vaccine immunogens. This technology combines structure-based design and a novel bioprocess, and the bonds are site-specific and targeted to preserve the 3D shape of a protein in the regions that elicit the best immune responses, achieving best-in-class protection.

"A new stabilization technology as clean and precise as this one is exactly what's needed to unlock the full potential of protein vaccines," Calder's co-founder and CEO Chris Marshall stated to describe the potential of the technology. Unlike disulfide bonds, dityrosine bonds are irreversible, and their formation is catalyzed after the protein is fully folded in its native state.

In addition to the RSV program, Calder is applying its technology to Universal Influenza and Epstein-Barr virus vaccines. "On the heels of the COVID pandemic, the benefits of vaccination for human health are incontrovertible. Our technology is going to revolutionize the vaccine space, making vaccines that are even safer and more potent," said Calder's co-founder and CSO, Mark Yondola, who is also the senior author of the paper.

Calder also plans to apply its technology more generally in protein engineering, imparting thermostability as needed to additional subunit vaccines, biologics, or other targets.

The work is published in the journal Nature Communications.

More information: Sonal V. Gidwani et al, Engineered dityrosine-bonding of the RSV prefusion F protein imparts stability and potency advantages, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46295-8

Journal information: Nature Communications

Provided by Calder Biosciences Inc.

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New study explores next-generation vaccine technology for RSV - Medical Xpress

As part of KFFs ongoing effort to identify and track the prevalence of health misinformation in the U.S., the latest KFF Health Misinformation Tracking Poll examines misinformation related to the measles vaccine and the publics views of the U.S. government and social media companies role in moderating false claims online. This research builds on the Health Misinformation Tracking Poll Pilot, which found that adults across demographics were uncertain about the accuracy of many health-related false and inaccurate claims, such as the false claim that the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism.

In 2000, measles was declared eliminated from the U.S. However, measles is now on the rise again with multiple states reporting cases this year including an outbreak in a Florida elementary school. Experts suggest this is largely the result of a decrease in childhood vaccinations due to missed vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2022. Compounded with these circumstances, views and refusal of childhood vaccines have shifted and become more partisan over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. While health misinformation and disinformation long preceded the pandemic, the pervasiveness of false and inaccurate information about COVID-19 and vaccines has renewed the focus on the role misinformation can play in distorting public health policy debates and impacting the health choices individuals make.

This KFF Health Misinformation Tracking Poll explores the prevalence and salience of one specific false claim related to the measles vaccine: Getting the measles vaccine is more dangerous than becoming infected with measles. Overall, most adults (82%) say they have not heard or read this claim, though one in six U.S. adults (18%) have heard or read it somewhere. Adults under age 30 the group most likely to use social media for health information and advice are most likely to report having heard this claim, though three in four (74%) in this age group have not heard it.

The survey also gauges whether people think this false claim is definitely true, probably true, probably false, or definitely false. Regardless of whether they have heard or read the claim, a fifth of adults (19%), including one quarter of parents, say this claim is definitely or probably true. Combining these measures, six percent of U.S. adults including about one in ten (9%) parents of children under age 18 say they have heard the claim and say it is definitely or probably true.

While most of the public correctly view the false claim that The measles vaccine is more dangerous than the disease itself as false, the findings echo previous KFF research showing that a majority express at least some uncertainty in their beliefs related to health claims. More than half of U.S. adults say this claim is either probably false (41%) or probably true (16%). Few (3%) say it is definitely true while four in ten (38%) are confident that the claim is definitely false.

Across partisans, levels of educational attainment, and race and ethnicity, fewer than five percent of adults say the claim is definitely true, meaning there are few ardent believers of this piece of misinformation. However, independents (37%) and Republicans (21%) are less likely than Democrats (59%) to be certain that the claim is definitely false. Those without a college degree (29%) are also less likely to say that the claim is definitely false than those with a college degree (55%).

While few adults say that this piece of misinformation is true, the public is split between saying it is probably false (41%) or definitely false (38%). Parents of children under age 18 are especially likely to say that this piece of information is probably false (50%). Having such a sizable group lean towards the correct answer, but be uncertain, may present an opportunity for intervention. Clear, accurate messaging from trusted sources, such as pediatricians, regarding the safety of the measles vaccine may solidify the publics and parents correct inclination that the measles vaccine is not more dangerous than contracting the disease. This would allow parents to be more confident in their decisions when it comes to vaccinating their young children.

SCOTUS and Misinformation on Social Media

Later this March, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in important cases related to misinformation on social media. First, Murthy v. Missouri asserts that it was unconstitutional for the federal government to ask social media companies to remove COVID-19 misinformation, on the grounds of the right to free speech. In two others, Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton, the Supreme Court is reviewing Florida and Texas laws that bar social media companies themselves from censoring or making judgements about what posts to allow, including removing misinformation. These cases come at a time when a majority of the public says that misinformation is a major problem in the U.S. These cases will have implications for how the U.S. government and social media companies interact with users and can moderate information.

The KFF Health Misinformation Tracking Poll Pilot found social media use is correlated with both exposure and inclination to believe health misinformation. While many adults reported frequently using social media, few said they would trust health information they may see on these platforms. However, those adults who frequently use social media to find health information and advice are more likely to believe that certain false statements about COVID-19 and reproductive health are true.

Building on that research, this KFF Health Misinformation Tracking Poll shows the public overall views the spread of health misinformation on social media as a bigger problem than the censorship of health speech on these platforms, with some divisions by partisanship. By more than a two to one margin, U.S. adults say, people being allowed to say harmful or misleading things about health topics (68%) is a bigger problem on social media than people being prevented from sharing alternative viewpoints on health topics (31%). Large shares of Democrats (85%) and independents (64%) say it is a bigger problem that people can say harmful things about health topics on social media, while Republicans are split with half (52%) saying the former is a larger problem and half (48%) saying the latter is a larger problem.

When asked about potential actions to prevent the spread of harmful and misleading health information on social media, a slightly larger share of the public supports action by social media companies rather than the U.S. government. This difference is largely driven by Republicans, as majorities of Democrats and independents are supportive of action by either social media companies or the U.S. government, but Republicans are more likely to be supportive of social media companies intervening as a solution for restricting false information.

About two thirds (66%) of adults overall say, Social media companies should take steps to restrict false health information, even if it limits people from freely publishing or accessing information, while one third instead say, Peoples freedom to publish and access health information should be protected, even if it means false information can also be published. There are partisan differences on this question, but notably a large majority of Democrats (82%) along with smaller majorities of independents (57%) and Republicans (56%) agree that social media companies should act.

The public is more divided when asked about potential action by the U.S. government. About six in ten adults overall (57%) say, The U.S. government should require social media companies to take steps to restrict false health information, even if it limits people from freely publishing or accessing information, while about four in ten (42%) say, Peoples freedom to publish and access health information should be protected, even if it means false information can also be published. Again, partisans divide, with a majority of Democrats (73%) and independents (60%) supportive of government intervention on this issue. Republicans (38%) are much less likely to say the U.S. government should intervene in this way.

About the Survey:

The Health Misinformation Tracking Poll is one component of a new KFF program area aimed at identifying and monitoring health misinformation and trust in the United States, placing particular emphasis on communities that are most adversely affected by misinformation, such as people of color, immigrants, and rural communities. The poll will work in tandem with KFFs forthcoming Health Misinformation Monitor, a detailed report of developments and narratives around health misinformation and trust across various topics, sent directly to professionals working to combat misinformation. The Misinformation Monitor will be an integral part of KFFs efforts to deeper analyze the dynamics of misinformation and inform a robust, fact-based health information environment, and will inform the topics asked about on future Health Misinformation Tracking Polls.

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Measles Vaccines and Misinformation in the Courts: A Snapshot From the KFF Health Misinformation Tracking Poll | KFF - KFF

LA JOLLA, CAScientists love a challenge. Or a friendly competition.

Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) recently published the results of a competition that put researchers to the test. For the competition, part of the NIH-funded Computational Models of Immunity network, teams of researchers from different institutions offered up their best predictions regarding B. pertussis (whooping cough) vaccination.

Each team tried to answer the same set of questions about vaccine responses in a diverse set of clinical study participants. Which study participants would show the highest antibody response to B. pertussis toxin 14 days post-vaccination? Which participants would show the highest increase of monocytes in their blood one day post-vaccination? And so on.

LJI scientists (left to right) Julie Burel, Ph.D., Sloan Lewis, Ph.D., Rashmi Tippalagama, Ph.D., and Eve Richardson, Ph.D., work to create a prediction model. (Image credit: Peters Lab, LJI)

The teams were given data on the study participants age, sex, and characteristics of their immune status prior to vaccination. The teams then developed computational models to predict vaccine responses in different patient groups.

We asked, What do you think is the most important factor that drives vaccination outcome?' says LJI Professor Bjoern Peters, Ph.D., who led the recent Cell Reports Methods study. The idea was to make the teams really put their money where their mouth is.

Multiple computational models to predict vaccine responses have been developed previously, many of them based on complex patterns in immune state before and after vaccination. Surprisingly, the best predictor in the competition was based on a very simple correlation: antibody responses decrease with the calendar age of study participants.

The result may seem anti-climactic, but the competition sheds light on where more vaccine research is needed. We know calendar age is important, but we still see a lot of variability in vaccination responses that we cant explain, says Peters.

The competition has also helped rally scientists around further B. pertussis vaccine research. In the United States, B. pertussis vaccines were reformulated in the 1990s to address relatively minor adverse side effects. Research suggests the newer (aP vaccine) design may not be as effective as the older (wP vaccine) design in preventing disease transmission and infection.

We dont know whats missing from this current vaccine, says Peters. Thats an open question.

The prediction competition is shaping up to be an annual event, and previous entrants have gone back to the data to further hone their predictions. Perhaps, Peters hopes, this closer look at exactly what drives higher antibody responses in younger people can lead to better vaccines for all patient groups.

We are hoping to use this competition not just as a way to examine the capacity of people to predict vaccination outcomes, but also as a way to address an important public health question, says Peters.

The Peters Lab and the CMI-PB Team are currently finishing up their second invited challenge. They will host a public contest in or around August 2024. Researchers can join them at https://www.cmi-pb.org/

Additional authors of the study, A multi-omics systems vaccinology resource to develop and test computational models of immunity, include Pramod Shinde, Ferran Soldevila, Joaquin Reyna, Minori Aoki, Mikkel Rasmussen, Lisa Willemsen, Mari Kojima, Brendan Ha, Jason A Greenbaum, James A Overton, Hector Guzman-Orozco, Somayeh Nili, Shelby Orfield, Jeremy P. Gygi, Ricardo da Silva Antunes, Alessandro Sette, Barry Grant, Lars Rnn Olsen, Anna Konstorum, Leying Guan, Ferhat Ay, and Steven H. Kleinstein.

This study was supported by the National Institutes of Healths (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID; grants U01AI150753, U01AI141995 and U19AI142742.)

DOI: 10.1016/j.crmeth.2024.100731

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The La Jolla Institute for Immunology is dedicated to understanding the intricacies and power of the immune system so that we may apply that knowledge to promote human health and prevent a wide range of diseases. Since its founding in 1988 as an independent, nonprofit research organization, the Institute has made numerous advances leading toward its goal: life without disease. Visit lji.org for more information.

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Vac to the future - La Jolla Institute for Immunology

People with cold agglutinin disease (CAD) who were on Enjaymo (sutimlimab-jome) during clinical trials produced antibodies in response to COVID-19 vaccination, suggesting their ability to mount an immune response was not impaired, a recent study reports.

In patients with a waning immune response, a booster dose was enough to restore protection back to levels even higher than those achieved just after the primary two-dose vaccination schedule, researchers found.

The study, COVID-19 vaccine safety and immunogenicity in patients with cold agglutinin disease receiving concomitant sutimlimab, was published as correspondence in the American Journal of Hematology.

CAD occurs when the immune system mistakenly identifies red blood cells as foreign and attacks them with the help of immune proteins, causing their destruction.

Treating CAD often involves the use of medications that weaken the immune system to keep it from attacking red blood cells. This may make patients more vulnerable to infectious agents such as viruses and bacteria, the researchers wrote.

Given as an infusion directly into the bloodstream, Enjaymo is an antibody that blocks C1s, an immune protein involved in the attack against red blood cells. Thus, blocking C1s is expected to prevent excess red blood cell destruction and ease CAD symptoms.

Enjaymo was approved in the U.S. in 2022 to reduce the need for blood transfusions due to red blood cell destruction in adults with CAD, becoming the first therapy to earn approval for the condition in the country.

It was tested in two Phase 3 clinical trials, CARDINAL (NCT03347396) and CADENZA (NCT03347422), which ran before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both were sponsored by Bioverativ, now part of Sanofi, which continues to develop and market Enjaymo.

Patients were encouraged to get vaccinated against COVID-19 while continuing their treatment with Enjaymo. While interactions with vaccinations are unlikely and antibody production in response to vaccination is not likely to be directly impacted, if and how Enjaymo interfered with immune responses to COVID-19 vaccination was unknown.

To know more, researchers from Sanofi worked in collaboration with investigators in Italy, Germany, and the U.S. to test the safety and immune response to COVID-19 vaccination in an open-label extension to the CARDINAL and CADENZA trials.

Of the 61 patients who completed both trials, 47 received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, mostly of the mRNA type, while 14 were not vaccinated, and 11 had an additional booster.

The mean age of vaccinated patients was 68.5years, and most were female (77%). About half (51%) had received rituximab in the previous five years. A mean of 212 weeks (roughly four years) had elapsed between their last dose of rituximab and their vaccination.

All 27 patients with available data on immunoglobulin G (IgG), the most abundant type of antibody in the blood, developed an immune response to COVID-19 vaccination. The immune response was consistent regardless of previous treatment with rituximab, which may lower the levels of IgG.

The levels of antibodies against spike, a protein found on the surface of the COVID-19-causing virus, were significantly lower in patients whose IgG levels were equal to or less than 8 g/L versus those whose IgG levels were greater than 8 g/L before vaccination (2.9 vs. 3.4).

The median time from the second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and a booster dose was 183 days, or about six months. In six patients who had a waning immune response after the second dose, the booster restored the antibodies to levels higher than those achieved just after the primary vaccination.

Ten side effects were reported in the seven days following any vaccine dose, and none were deemed serious. Despite reports that COVID-19 or COVID-19 vaccination may trigger CAD, there was no evidence of excess breakdown of red blood cells.

In conclusion, COVID-19 vaccines were well tolerated, and no safety concerns were identified, the researchers wrote, noting that despite treatment with Enjaymo, COVID-19 vaccination response was not impaired.

These findings may offer insight into the response to other vaccinations; however, further studies and analyses will be required, the researchers wrote, adding solid conclusions cannot be made from a small sample size.

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Patients on Enjaymo have immune response to COVID-19 vaccines - Cold Agglutinin News

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Does the government have a role in combating vaccine misinformation? - Citrus County Chronicle

The names Alejandra Gurtman, MD, and Barbara Pahud, MD, probably don't ring a bell. But they should.

Both Dr. Gurtman and Dr. Pahud work for Pfizer and played a major role in the creation of Abrysvo, the first and only maternal vaccine to help protect infants and babies from respiratory syncytial virus aka RSV at birth and through 6 months of life.

The work they've done to get the RSV vaccine to market is personal, both doctors say, as RSV tends to impact the Latine community at much higher rates.

In fact, a study that examined the burden of all common respiratory infections from January 2016 to December 2022 found that 59 percent of the burden of respiratory infections was distributed among Black and Hispanic people (the identifiers used in the study), despite these population groups being ethnic minorities in the US. The hospitalization rate among Black and Hispanic people also accounted for 55.5 percent of all cases. And in 2022, the peak RSV incidence rate in Black and Hispanic children was two to three times that in white children.

Dr. Pahud, a native of Mexico, is a trained pediatric and infectious disease specialist and Pfizer's director of clinical vaccines. She led the project to recruit diverse clinical trial participants for Pfizer's RSV vaccine trial before it was approved to ensure that the pool of participants was reflective of those most impacted by the disease. Dr. Gurtman, an Argentine infectious disease specialist, led on the research and development side as senior vice president of vaccine clinical research and development at Pfizer.

Both doctors say the journey to an RSV vaccine was a challenging one. It's a feat years in the making. Coupled with a global pandemic and medical mistrust among the prime demographic the virus most impacts, there were several hurdles to overcome. So what led these two to break the decades-long spell? They spoke to PS about the process.

PS: Obviously, the RSV vaccine has been a long time in the making. But given the past few years, especially with the tridemic, what kind of pressure did you face to get something to market?

Dr. Pahud: The pressure has been like a pressure cooker for a long time now. For the past 60 years, people have been clamoring [at] pediatricians, begging to get a vaccine for this. Pfizer continued working on RSV vaccine even through the pandemic. The [Maternal Immunity Study for Safety and Efficacy (MATISSE)] maternal study marks one of the first vaccines that was studied in pregnant woman to be administered to pregnant woman. So we're breaking open this path of doing things the right way not the backward way of, 'Oh, we have this vaccine, wouldn't be nice if we give it to pregnant woman?' No, this was designed from the very beginning to be given to pregnant woman. But that also meant figuring a lot out along the way.

Dr. Gurtman: Fortunately, when the tripledemic broke out, the race toward an RSV vaccine was well underway, and we could move quickly to get something to market. RSV has always been a seasonal disease, and in 2013, when the NIH discovered the configuration for the virus, we immediately started to look at what vaccine candidates we could develop. By 2018, we had a vaccine candidate, by 2019/2020 we were testing the vaccine on pregnant individuals, and by 2023 the vaccine was FDA-approved. It wasn't as quick as our COVID vaccine, but still we moved pretty fast to bring a vaccine to market that could be given to protect from the first breath so the moment of the baby's born all the way to the first six months. The first 90 days of life are super important because as the babies grow, and the airways get bigger, the disease tends to be less severe.

PS: Tell me about some of the hardships that occurred during the RSV development process.

Dr. Pahud: Recruiting Black and Hispanic populations is tough, and it was at the front and center of my work. When I came to Pfizer from working on COVID vaccines, I had just left a study where my priority was enrolling African American and Hispanic minorities in research. We were doing mobile units and doing enrollment in ways we had never done it before with COVID. So I joined Pfizer with that mentality of nothing is getting in my way. We are getting this population, no matter what.

From the very beginning, even our materials showed Black, white, and Hispanic individuals. It was translated in different languages. We had investigators and coordinators that looked like the population, that spoke their language. Because at least for me, I used to be a pediatrician, I used to recruit participants and if I approached a Mexican mom, as a Mexican mom, and told her, 'Seora, here's how this works,' it's a completely different story. We also made sure that our in-field recruiters knew that if you're working to bring in a participant that is from minority population, and it takes you longer to bring them in, that's OK. Don't just give that slot to the easiest participant. We are okay with you waiting to get them in here to do what you need to do, because these participants are harder to recruit. And that means we need to make them a priority, or it's just not gonna happen.

Dr. Gurtman: Once we got the right participants recruited (20% of our participants in the study were Black and almost 28% [Latine], which is pretty amazing), the hardest part was waiting for the results. I shed tears when we got the data back showing 82 percent efficacy and could move forward and apply for FDA approval. But now we face an uphill battle as vaccine rates continue to be low among these populations.

PS: How did you get into this work?

Dr. Pahud: I was born and raised in Mexico City. I did medical school in Mexico City where we do a year of social service. So when you graduate from medical school, you need to give a year back to the country and that's how we get doctors in rural areas which I think the United States should do, by the way.

So in that year of social service you need to go and volunteer to be part of the national vaccination campaign. So when I was a doctor, in my little rural town, I knew my population of 15,000 people. I knew had been vaccinated and who wasn't. And I would send out my nurses to immunize. We would also do an end-of the year vaccine sweeps for even more rural towns I'm talking middle-of-nowhere places with very low income.

My first time doing that, I went to this very, poor rural area with dirt ground. I put my little site in a corner with a little stool and a table, and everybody came out and offered me coffee, chocolate, bread. They kept checking in on me because they were so grateful that we came out there to vaccinate their children and I was just blown away by that.

After that, I was like, I don't care what I do, but I'm going to be working on vaccinations when I grew up. And I did just that. I ended up doing pediatrics because I figured that's who gets the most amount of vaccines. And then within pediatrics, I did infectious diseases, because that's where vaccines are made. And then I did a vaccine safety fellowship with the CDC. Then I worked in clinical trials, teaching about vaccine hesitancy and vaccine education in academia. And then landed at Pfizer, where I'm seeing a completely different view from the vaccination process, which is the how these vaccines make it through all these stages and into the FDA, which was the piece that I was missing.

Dr. Gurtman: I'm trained as an adult infectious diseases physician who spent my first half of my career doing medicine and caring for patients, most of them minorities. I worked at Mount Sinai in New York area, and by virtue of where that is located, I had a lot of patients who were Latinos. I saw the disparities firsthand. Unfortunately, the Black community and Latinx community has less access to medical care with more mistrust. Vaccination rates in general are lower and prenatal visits are lower. And that's something that, I take very seriously and always have. I've been at Pfizer for 18 years and I've always worked on vaccines.

PS: When it comes to vaccine hesitancy among Black and Hispanic populations, what is your hope for the future?

Dr. Pahud: I am saddened to say that at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, I thought we would see lower vaccine hesitancy after it was over. But we've only an increase. As we are starting to tackle less severe diseases (i.e. RSV vs. polio), people become more comfortable with skipping out. That said, the developing world still clamors for these vaccines. So we're going to continue to deliver them. We're currently working on a multi-dose vial study to bring the RSV vaccine to the developing world as quickly as we can. And as for the US, we're hoping as more people become educated about the RSV vaccine, they're realize how much good it can do. Continuing to cover this information in the news is crucial. It's one of the primary ways that mothers will understand what they're up against.

Dr. Gurtman: I think we need to educate pregnant individuals, their partners, and develop education, not only with the obstetrician, but midwives and healthcare providers in general. There's a lot of work to be done for these communities. Look what happened with COVID, right? No community was more affected. And yet they have vaccination rates sometimes 20% to 30% lower than when you compare it to the white person. I think that the medical community needs to do a lot of work to gain the trust those patients. I would hope that in the next few years we have more and more physicians and healthcare workers that are representative of you and me.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Alexis Jones is the senior health editor at POPSUGAR. Her areas of expertise include women's health, mental health, racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare, diversity in wellness, and chronic conditions. Her other bylines can be found at Women's Health, Prevention, Marie Claire, and more. Alexis is currently the president of ASME Next, an organization for early-career print and digital journalists.

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Since the beginning of the pandemic, Michigan has continued to have lower vaccination rates against COVID-19 than the national average.

According to 2023 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 63 percent of the states population is fully vaccinated, compared to the national average of 69 percent.

In 2021, Michigan State University Extension -- an organization that aims to help Michiganders improve their lives through education -- sought to increase those numbers by establishing the Michigan Vaccine Program (MVP) in partnership with the CDC and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS).

MSU Extension Immunization Health Extension Specialist Maggie Magoon said misinformation spread about COVID vaccines has polarized the nation and led to the mistrust of other immunizations.

That is really a concern for children and [especially] families with children and with older adults, she said, because if the children arent immunized, of course, the other adults can give them infectious diseases they can spread then to other children and older adults who are at risk or immunocompromised.

Funded by a $7 million grant from the CDC and the MDHHS, the three-year program focuses on statewide education and outreach, using in-person programming and media campaigns to share accurate information on vaccination.

The in-person programming is targeted to people of all ages, with coordinators going into community organizations and schools to educate on vaccines, plus a youth ambassador program where students are trained to share vaccine information with their peers. Also created was the Physician Peer Education Project on Immunization, which travels throughout Michigan giving immunization updates to practicing physicians and their staff.

[Our goal is to] provide that education with the understanding that we may not change everybodys mind, but just making that information available to them, Magoon said.

For general adult outreach, coordinators give presentations, answer questions and share take-home resources.

Alyssa Maturen, a supervising educator with the program, said its largely elderly adults who attend the events, looking for clarification on the safety of vaccines and how to access them. Maturen said officials try to make the presentations conversational and ask the audience a lot of questions about their own experience and knowledge of vaccines.

Its a pretty good mix of people who are excited to have you there and excited to talk about it , she said, and there are some that just want to debate vaccines and are not really there for the information.

Polio is a frequent topic of conversation, with attendees often reminiscing about lining up to get that vaccine when it came out in the 1950s, Maturen said. Before then, the ancient disease crippled thousands of Americans every year and was eventually eradicated in the United States in 1979.

One of the biggest takeaways, Maturen said, is how many older adults are confused about where to find reliable sources of information, often putting too much trust in social media. She said her team will discuss bias in the media and direct audiences to reliable, non-partisan sources for accurate information.

With those who only want to challenge the effectiveness of vaccines, Maturen has trained her staff in providing evidence-based information without inserting personal opinions and how to de-escalate hostile situations and guide people to additional resources, she said.

The number of people challenging their presentations has gone down.

Its not as inflammatory, she said. Its been around for so long, they kind of got their initial thoughts and anger out about it already, and now its just part of something that they disagree with or agree with but not worth fighting about.

For the youngest generation, program coordinators work in schools and youth programs with a range of materials and presentations targeted to those aged 5-18. The activities often have a general health focus, like explaining the importance of hand washing and visiting the doctor, with a tie-in to vaccines.

Younger kids learn through play and activities with things like word searches, books, coloring books and games.

Maribel Richards, a Mecosta County-focused youth and family health program instructor with MVP, said she likes to play the gloves off challenge with middle school students to teach them about personal protective equipment. In the game kids spray shaving cream on their gloves then try to remove them without getting shaving cream on themselves.

Megan Wilczynski, the Extensions Branch County 4-H program coordinator and MVP program instructor, teaches kids to make cells with play- doh or discusses vaccines and herd immunity in animals when speaking with 4-H programs. She said hasnt experienced the pushback others have had with adults.

Kids are just excited to learn [and be] hands on, she said. Oh, I didnt know that is usually what I hear.

Older kids have the opportunity to work with a Germ-O-Scope, a homemade version of a microscope that helps them to understand diseases on a cellular level.

Richards said she too hasnt experienced much negative pushback since beginning the job a year ago. She said shes especially gotten a positive response from the seniors in the Mecosta Osceola Career Center Certified Nursing Assistance Program.

Every time that Ive gone into their class, they seemed very attentive, she said. Some of them ask questions, and Ive gotten feedback from the teachers saying that they really liked having me be there and some of them have said that theyre excited that I would come back.

On a digital level, the MVP is active on seven social media channels and has used a series of public service announcements, webinars, podcasts and traditional advertising to share information.

While data is not available that correlates MVP to statewide vaccination rates, Magoon said social media stats and audience feedback have shown positive results.

She said their social media campaign has generated more than 1,000 followers, more than 500,000 impressions -- the number of people who see the content -- and more than 50,000 interactions, which measures things like comments, likes and shares.

The last [number] is really a strong indicator that content connected, Magoon said.

She said the webinars have also shown effective results. She said, following the webinar, 96 percent of unvaccinated participants reported they were more likely to get themselves and their children vaccinated, 96 percent said they felt more confident vaccines would protect them, and 100 percent reported an increase in knowledge.

For the in-person programs, she said 85 percent of Youth Ambassadors and youth and adults participating in vaccine awareness and educational programming reported an increase in knowledge about vaccines.

The program will end in June, but Magoon said the Extension will continue the immunization education programs they had before MVP, and incorporate aspects of the program into other grants, presentations and scholarly work.

Though the COVID crisis may be over, Magoon said the need for education isnt.

The public health emergency is over, but COVID still exists, she said, and the vaccinations and updates are still recommended.

Erica Hobbs is a writer based in Detroit with a passion for arts and culture and travel. She has reported for numerous news outlets including the Detroit News, Fodors, Business Insider, Reuters, WDET and AnnArbor.com (now the Ann Arbor News), among others.

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Michigan Vaccine Program educates residents and shares accurate information about vaccination - Second Wave Michigan

Dont worry, they said; this is just about that hyper-politicized vaccine that Donald Trump rushed into development and approval to fight the hyper-politicized pandemic. Its not going to affect real vaccines that everybody trusts.

Only theres no such thing as a vaccine everybody trusts, because anti-vaxxers on the left worked for decades to convince the gullible and frightened that routine childhood vaccines can cause autism. Then they were joined by anti-vaxxers on the right, and together they worked to undermine confidence in the life-saving shots that transformed medicine by eradicating smallpox, by saving generations of children from the crippling effects of polio and by turning chickenpox, measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis from killers into risks that can be managed and that arent even risks as long as we dont listen to all the lies about vaccines.

And sure enough, they were wrong. Measles, a highly contagious virus that can lead to pneumonia and encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, was officially eradicated in the United States two decades ago, but there are still occasional outbreaks, mainly associated with international travel and large clusters of unvaccinated people.

In December, the CDC began tracking a significant measles outbreak; by last week, it had grown to 45 cases in 17 jurisdictions, with the largest cluster in Florida, where the states surgeon general told parents they didnt have to follow the standard procedure of keeping their unvaccinated children out of school if they didnt want to.

And the National Conference of State Legislatures reports that rates of routine vaccinations for kindergartners declined during the pandemic nationwide. In many cases, the reasons had more to do with logistics than vaccine hesitancy, but the rates still hadnt recovered by the 2022-23 school year. After kindergarten coverage held steady nationally for a decade at 95% for standard vaccines; it dipped to 93% last year. That might not sound like a big deal, but it reflects an increase of 250,000 unvaccinated kids, and a significant increase in the chance that a given community will have insufficient herd immunity to prevent an outbreak.

Its against this backdrop that a S.C. Senate Medical Affairs subcommittee meets this morning to double-down on a two-year law the Legislature passed in 2022 to prohibit government and even private businesses from requiring their employees or customers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

As the S.C. Daily Gazette reports, S.975 would extend those restrictions indefinitely and expand them: Employers couldnt require employees to get any novel vaccine one that hasnt been fully approved by the FDA or that was approved within the previous 10 years. Violators would face a $1,000 fine and up to a year in prison for first offense and up to $5,000 and five years for the third offense. At the same time, the bill would reduce the penalty for people who violate quarantine orders when theyre carrying a highly infectious disease.

Perhaps more worrisome, the bill also would restrict the states public health agency from helping South Carolinians voluntarily receive that future vaccination against that future pandemic.

Well set aside the inaccurate claims that supporters made at a recent public hearing about supposed Washington mandates during the COVID pandemic, since people who are determined to believe those lies arent going to be deterred by facts. Well also set aside the jaw-dropping hypocrisy of legislators in a state that worships at the altar of free enterprise telling businesses they cant protect themselves from the cost of a virus racing through their workforce. Instead, well just focus on the danger this legislation poses to all of us.

The most obvious thing it does is make it more difficult for us to protect ourselves, by cutting the states health department out of the distribution of that next vaccine for that next pandemic.

Less obvious but potentially even more dangerous is what it would do to help the spread of measles, polio, tetanus, rubella, pertussis and the other preventable diseases that fewer kids already are getting vaccinated against.

S.975 and similar bills, and all the testimony that goes into those bills, help spread these diseases by elevating wholly discredited claims that vaccines are dangerous, further eroding the publics trust in physicians and giving people permission to opt out of all of their obligations to society. Starting but not ending with vaccinations.

Yes, some people read all the crazy stuff on social media and believe that childhood vaccines cause autism or whatever the snake-oil salesmen are selling these days. Mostly, though, the people who are refusing to vaccinate their kids, who are refusing to get a flu shot, who are refusing to get a COVID shot simply misunderstand what it means to live in a free society with an emphasis on society and object to anyone telling them what to do.

It would be fine if they lived alone in the woods and grew their own food and never came into contact with others, just as it would be fine for them to refuse to take drug tests or IQ tests or any other tests a potential employer might require since they wouldnt have an employer. It would be fine for them to not get a drivers license and with it the agreement to obey traffic laws since they wouldnt be driving on our roads.

But when people live in a civil society, where their actions can affect everyone around them, they have a moral obligation to protect others from themselves. And its perfectly appropriate for them to have a legal or contractual obligation as well.

Whats not appropriate is for our Legislature to appease cantankerous people by saying the rest of society cant enforce those obligations on them.

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SC Senate bill bans vaccine mandates, would spread distrust | Editorials - The Post and Courier

With recent outbreaks of measles in the Chicago area including diagnoses of measles within the citys new migrant shelters NBC 5 Investigates and Telemundo Investiga have examined all immunization data kept by the Illinois State Board of Education, which shows the vaccination rates for each school public and private throughout the state.

All schools are required to report these rates each year, for a variety of communicable diseases, including measles, mumps, chicken pox and rubella.

The most recent available state data is for the 2022-2023 school year, before many of Chicagos new migrant children arrived in local schools.The data is still useful, however, to see how many children were immunized for measles in advance of the arrival of their new migrant classmates.

For example, the De Diego Elementary Community Academy the public school for many migrant children who currently live in a shelter on Halsted Street in Pilsen reported a measles vaccination rate of 94.46% for the 2022-2023 school year, with fewer than ten of its 415 students unvaccinated for measles.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sets a target level of 95% for a school to achieve herd immunity, which is the percentage of students that need to be vaccinated in order to avoid wide transmission of a disease.

With De Diego Academy now accommodating many young children who have recently arrived in Chicago, that herd immunity rate becomes even more key, in ensuring that the school remains as well-protected as possible from measles spreading to other students.

NBC 5 Investigates and Telemundo Investiga have created a searchable table, showing the 2022-2023 measles vaccination rates for all schools public and private throughout Illinois.

Note that many schools have identical names. For example, there are scores of Lincoln schools throughout the state. To find a particular school in your district, use this link to look up your school district number, and then search for that number in the table to find all of its schools and their immunization rates for measles.

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Measles vaccine data: Find out the vaccination rate for any school in Illinois - NBC Chicago

AFT-WV President Fred Albert, left, talks with former Glenville State College President Williams Simmons following Wednesdays West Virginia Board of Education meeting urging board members to contact Gov. Jim Justice and encourage him to veto a bill weakening immunization requirements in public and private schools. (Photo by Steven Allen Adams)

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Vaccine advocates urge veto of West Virginia bill weakening school immunizations - Parkersburg News