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The Booster Bulletin: Your Weekly Dose of Immunization News

Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak issued a mandatory face covering policy for all Nevadans and visitors – No shirt, no shoes, no mask, no service.

“We owe it to each other to accept the fact that wearing face coverings saves lives. We owe it to the many workers.....health care professionals, retail clerks, restaurant workers, grocery store employees to accept that fact. We owe it to Nevada’s many businesses large and small to accept that fact. My fellow Nevadans: I’m offering us all another opportunity to limit our risk for exposure and infection, and to keep our businesses open and our economy moving. For Nevada to stay safe and stay open, we must make face coverings a routine part of our daily life.” Per this requirement, anyone in any public space throughout the State, including visitors, will need to wear a mask. Directive 024 and a guidance document corresponding to this directive with information on the practical application and exceptions can be found online at https://nvhealthresponse.nv.gov/.

During this pandemic, we remain committed to sharing news and information from local and national media about COVID-19 and immunization-related topics. Each week we’ll continue to review clips from across the U.S., from various news outlets and platforms, and bring you ten timely and relevant links.

"Coronavirus Contextualized, 13th edition: Exploring, through data, COVID-19 in Nevada and beyond" The Nevada Independent (June 26, 2020)

Welcome to the 13th installment of “Coronavirus Contextualized,” a recurring feature in which we explore some of the numbers swirling around in the time of coronavirus. Through these stories, we hope to parse some of those numbers, including confirmed cases of COVID-19, people tested, number of hospitalizations and deaths, and provide some context to them.

“Wearing A Mask Is A Sign Of Mutual Respect During The Coronavirus Pandemic” Forbes (June 25, 2020)

You wear a mask to protect others, and others wear a mask to protect you. Wearing a mask is a true sign of respect for others; it is not an impingement on one’s freedom as many have claimed. Wearing a mask tells the person you pass on the street, share an aisle with in the supermarket, or march along side at a peaceful protest, that you respect them as a fellow human.

“Death threats, shoves, and throwing blood: Anti-vaxxers’ bullying of public health officials endangers our country”  STAT News (June 26, 2020)

False claims. Racist and violent memes. Threats. Physical attacks. Public health advocates across the country face these and more from anti-vaccine extremists when they try to enact policies to halt outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses such as measles and whooping cough.

“‘No masks. No vaccines.’ Battle is brewing over coronavirus immunizations in California”  The Sacramento Bee (June 26, 2020) 

They’ve resisted the stay-at-home order, denounced contact tracing as government control and disregarded a statewide mask mandate. At every stage of the pandemic, California’s anti-vaccine activists have foreshadowed what their fight against a future vaccine to prevent COVID-19 could look like.

“CDC and drugmakers boost flu vaccine doses amid fears of an unprecedented respiratory illness season” The Washington Post (June 24, 2020)

Worried about a simultaneous assault of the novel coronavirus and seasonal influenza this winter, public health officials and vaccine manufacturers are making millions of extra flu vaccine doses to protect those most vulnerable to the pandemic and influenza, according to government and company officials…Getting the right public health message out will also be critical. Older adults, Blacks and Hispanics are among the groups who need to be prioritized for flu vaccination, said Michael Greenberg, head of medical operations for Sanofi Pasteur in North America. 

Podcast: “Can We Get Back to Routine Vaccines?” Voices for Vaccines (June 24, 2020) 

While the world is consumed with justifiable fears of COVID-19, measles, polio, and even diphtheria are finding pathways to resurgence. What is going on with those routine childhood vaccines? Are they really important right now? Karen and Nathan discuss this critical topic and what you can do to make sure we are preventing multiple health crises at once. Remember: we rely on each other.

“Antivaccine leader Del Bigtree on COVID-19: ‘Let’s catch this cold!’ Why antivaxxers and coronavirus conspiracy theorists are often one in the same” Science Based Medicine (June 22, 2020)

One of the happy delusions that many in the science-based community (including, at least somewhat, myself) and mainstream press have held over the years that has been punctured by the arrival of COVID-19 is that one main reason that antivaccine beliefs persist is that we’ve forgotten the toll that the diseases against which we vaccinate. If, for instance, measles returned with a vengeance, or haemophilus influenza type B, or polio, antivaxxers would see the error of their ways, and resistance to vaccination would diminish. How many times have you heard this argument?

“Fact check: No, Colorado bill does not mandate all students get vaccines without exemption”  USA Today  (June 23, 2020

In an attempt to raise Colorado’s low vaccination rate, state legislators have passed Senate Bill 163, known as the School Entry Immunization Bill. Online misinformation about how the new legislation may affect those who oppose vaccinating their children is sparking confusion.

“How anti-vaxxers are set to endanger public health again” New York Daily News (June 24, 2020)

We’re merely halfway into the year, and yet 2020 has challenged us with a global plague, months of lockdown, economic devastation, the most dire unemployment since the Great Depression, the horrific death of George Floyd and civil rights protests in our cities. With so much strife occurring simultaneously, it’s only natural that many Americans — socially isolated and financially insecure — are more prone to embrace far-reaching conspiracy theories, seeing malice around every corner and advocating extreme measures. 

“All You Wanted To Know About Coronavirus Vaccine Science But Were Afraid To Ask” NPR (June 24, 2020) 

Approximately 200 COVID-19 vaccines are being actively developed. All vaccines have one main goal: to prepare a person's immune system to fight off an invading organism should the body encounter it. To accomplish that, a vaccine presents the immune system with something that looks like the invader and is essentially harmless, but nonetheless tricks the body into developing an immune response that would fight off the real virus if it appeared. It's a bit like showing someone a picture and saying, "If this person shows up at your door, don't let them in."



Prepare, Don’t Panic. To inform Nevadans statewide, the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Governor's Office have created this website to better share information and resources as it pertains to the current status of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and its impact within the state of Nevada. https://nvhealthresponse.nv.gov/

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*Links included do not imply endorsement.