August is National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM). With the new school year about to start — and flu season right around the corner — it’s a great time to remind people in your community that getting all recommended vaccines protects against serious illness. Thanks to widespread vaccination, some childhood diseases like polio have been officially eliminated in the United States. But a recent polio case in New York State shows just how important it is that we don’t take achievements like that for granted.
Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that childhood vaccination rates decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic — possibly due to disrupted school schedules and concerns about going to the doctor’s office for routine well-visits. Routine vaccination rates for adults and teens also dropped in 2020 and 2021. This is concerning, since we know the best way to stay protected from some viruses is by keeping up with vaccines across the lifespan. The good news? We have the tools to encourage people to do that.
In June 2022, ODPHP launched the Take Good Care campaign, which promotes clinical preventive services like vaccination through the use of MyHealthfinder. MyHealthfinder offers clear, reliable information about vaccines and other clinical preventive services for consumers — plus a personalized assessment tool to help people find out which vaccines and other preventive services they may need.
Please join us as we promote routine vaccination to help our communities stay healthy! Here’s how you can help:
- Use the plain language vaccine information on MyHealthfinder to share with people in your community — and to guide your conversations.
- Use CDC’s NIAM Toolkit for Reaching Healthcare Professionals and Toolkit for Reaching Parents and Patients to promote routine vaccination.
Together, we can help protect our communities from vaccine-preventable diseases.
