Stan, Clarence, & Barry revisit vaccinations with Nurse Practioner, Shirlynn LaChapelleShirlynn LaChapelle, President of Nursing is the Answer and a nurse consultant at Shirlynn LaChapelle & Associates, brings decades of expertise as a former surgical ICU nurse, nurse practitioner, and past president of the Minnesota Black Nurses’ Association. A member of the Minnesota Attorney General’s Drug Pricing Task Force, she joins Health Chatter to share her insights on the critical role of vaccinations in promoting public health.Join the conversation at healthchatterpodcast.comBrought to you in support of Hue-MAN, who is Creating Healthy Communities through Innovative Partnerships.More about their work can be found at http://huemanpartnership.org/
Hello, everybody. Welcome to Health Chatter. And today's show is a timely show because we figured, the Health Chatter crew figured, wow, we better get a vaccination update. And we've got a great guest. She's been on the show before, so it'll be a surprise in one minute who that is. So stay tuned. We have a great crew. I always like to recognize all of them.
You can't imagine the amount of work that goes on in the background to make these shows successful, including research and production and marketing, et cetera. And we've got a great crew that does it. Maddie Levine-Wolf, Aaron Collins, Deandra Howard, background research. Production, all the production to get these shows out to you, the listening audience, falls to Matthew Campbell.
Sheridan Nygaard also provides research in marketing and transcription for the shows. And Dr. Barry Baines is with us and gives us the medical perspective on all our shows. So thanks to everybody. And of course, a special thanks goes to Clarence. Clarence and I do these shows together. And we figured out, we had to get to kind of a retirement age to figure out that we like to chat.
So it's been a pleasure. Human Partnership is our... is our sponsoring agency. And I would recommend highly that you check them out at humanpartnership.org, great community health organization that does wonderful, wonderful things in the community around all things health-related, humanpartnership.org. Check us out, Health Chatter, at healthchatterpodcast.com.
All our research, our transcriptions of our shows, Everything is on our website. Check us out. And today, with a vaccination 2024-2025, we have a special guest with us, Sherlyn LaChapelle, who's...
I don't even know how to how to describe our collegial relationship but it's been really really special um she provides Sherlyn provides a unique perspective on a variety of different health issues and um and knows how to get the the word out she really really does she's um President of Nursing is the answer.
She's a nurse consultant with her own practice, current member of the Minnesota Attorney General's Drug Pricing Task Force, former president of Minnesota Black Nurses Association. I mean, I could go on and on. And also, I just learned that she and Clarence are kind of connected by being classmates. years and years ago.
So I asked them if they had a special handshake, but if they do, they wouldn't tell me what that special handshake is because it is special. But Sherlyn, Thanks. Thanks again for being with us. It's a pleasure to have you. So, all right. You know what? I think what I'll do is I'm going to hand this to Clarence. Clarence, you want to start us out on this whole concept of vaccinations.
I've got some ideas about some questions, but let's start with you.
Can I say one more thing? Sure. I am also a psychiatric nurse practitioner in private practice with a psychiatrist for the last few years. Wonderful. Wonderful, wonderful.
Yeah, we'll keep talking to Sherrilyn and Sherrilyn will keep coming up with different things. She is such a unique person and also a great friend. So that is something that's there. Vaccination, Sherman, why is it important to talk about vaccinations?
Well, I'm going to kind of veer off to what I heard on the news this morning that scared the heck out of me, that I'm not trying to be political, but Trump is going to give the Department of Public Health, or HEW, over to that crazoid, what is it, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ? and who's an anti-vaxxer and a conspiracy theorist and who eats, who had worms in his brain. I mean, that's so frightening.
So if you think people aren't getting vaccinated now, can you just imagine what will happen with him on the airways spewing all these crazy theories and I won't even say half-truths, I'm gonna say no truths. How many people will die because of that false information? And everything he's saying has been disproven, I guess in the 70s when the doctor in England who made up the false research
that was not reproducible, got prosecuted and lost his medical license, and he might have even gone to jail. But so many, I'm going to say probably 100,000s of people have died because of that false information. So I'll leave it there to your next question.
Well, actually, Sherrilyn, I was hoping that you could rephrase all of that without mentioning names. Okay. This is not live because I know how you feel. Tell us how you really, really feel. But if you could reframe that conversation without mentioning names, but talking about your concerns, I would appreciate that. Okay, here we go.
My concern is that there are a lot of people who have no medical background, including some that do, who are misguided and have false beliefs and who very easily share these along with other conspiracy theories about vaccines causing autism. And that has been disproven over and over again.
But the sad part of that are all the deaths that have occurred unnecessarily because of that information that people feel that or believe that it causes autism. And that has been disproven on multiple levels, multiple times. And as we all know, I'm of a certain age. I think polio vaccine came out in the late 40s. I was born in 51. Forget that number.
And I have to say, I took care of, in my 50 years as a nurse, one person on an iron lung at Hennepin County Medical Center. But most people, if you say, do you know anybody with polio? They would say no. Do you know anybody with what was the other one? Not scarlet fever, but it was another one that was killing a lot of people. Smallpox. Smallpox. That's it with the S. And.
It's just how can people say they're not going to get vaccinated? Polio is still well, we've got a resurgence in this country because of all the people who've come from abroad who are not vaccinated and some people who were born here, young people who are not vaccinated. So it is frightening to me. It's just very frightening. So, you know,
You know, it's interesting when you just talk to friends, colleagues, doesn't matter who, neighbors, whatever. And you get this sense that people feel like they're being poked a lot. Okay. Vaccinated a lot. And let me... And let me just, you know, COVID certainly brought that to the forefront, for sure. And because it was really a public health emergency.
And fortunately, we had the research behind it in order to create these vaccines really quickly in the scheme of things. But Yes, there are a lot of vaccines out there. We are in the, shall we say, kind of the COVID flu season right now, which we'll circle back to. But let me just, you know, I made, I think, a short list. You probably could add to this.
So there's RSV, there's shingles, there's hepatitis B, there's tetanus diphtheria, there's pneumonia, there's measles, mumps, rubella, MMR. We've also heard outbreaks recently of M pox, which some of us used to call at least that they have monkey pox. Okay, so let's first, let's just get it off of the table. Let's first talk about COVID. and boosters, et cetera, and flu.
So take it away from there, Sherilyn.
Well, I have heard people say, oh, I'm not going to get that COVID vaccine. Oh, it kills people. It does this and that. And for those people, I have to say this. COVID, the vaccine has saved, I'm gonna say millions and millions of lives. I think in this country due to false information, I think over a million people unnecessarily died who did not take the vaccine. And it's heartbreaking.
Clarence and I have a friend who used to be a reporter at the spokesman. I'm trying to think of his name now. And when he was in the hospital before they intubated him, he said, I wish I had taken the vaccine. Please take the vaccine. And he died the next day. You know who I'm talking about, Clarence.
I think it's Mel. Was it Mel?
It was Mel.
Right, right. I want to ask Dr. Barry Baines to chime in here now because I think that Sherrilyn has said some very interesting things that I'd like to hear his perspective on.
Well, I guess when I went through our research, and Stan went through a very exhaustive list of vaccines that would have everybody really think that they're a pincushion if they got them all at once. But I guess how I like to break things down are the kind of vaccines that are sort of needed on what I'll call a seasonal basis.
In other words, we're getting into the flu season, and typically it follows a path where usually November to February, it just depends on, because all these viruses evolve. That's why, in fact, why we always need new vaccines because the viruses, even though they don't have a brain, it seems like they do because they evolve and they mutate and they change.
So what I always hear from my communities, and this is more friends as opposed to as patients, But this whole idea that because we have these phased-in illnesses that usually happen in the winter, there's a premium on several of them to get vaccinated against.
And, you know, COVID has followed a course where it still has its ups and downs, and it continues, and it's, you know, still here, even more than the way the flu has. virus stays with us from year to year. On the flip side, it seems like the new variants in COVID are a little less virulent, a little less lethal to the population.
That being said, the population ages, and if you have other conditions, even though the virus might not be as virulent for certain people with chronic conditions, that it could really knock them for a loop and they could die from COVID still. It's not like what we saw from three, four years ago for sure.
And so to me, the big three is COVID, flu, which we're not in the flu season yet, but we're getting there. And I see those as the top two. And then RSV is important for some populations is what I'm reading. And it seems like there's still a little bit of uncertainty about exactly who should be getting RSV and the effectiveness of the RSV vaccine.
So I see those three as the seasonal things that hit us every year, year after year. You should get ready for that. And then a lot of the other ones are either one time or two time, like in the Shingrix, the shingles vaccine. That's never... It's never an acute situation where, you know, shingles just comes up. It just is there all the time.
The hepatitis B vaccines, certainly the measles, mumps, rubella, you know, those kinds of things. I wouldn't say, I want to say that they were one and done, but because a lot of those diseases have left the population, this idea of herd immunity and people have antibodies to these things, which make it less likely that people are going to get those.
But those tend to be, you don't need them except on a multi-year basis. And some like shingles vaccine, hepatitis B, once you go through the series, you're done. Or at least as of now, as you know, one of the things with science and research is that we find out new things that always change our hypothesis or change our theories about what is the best practice. And so I think
it's sort of those two lumps, the, the, what do we have to get like now for this season and then other ones that are important. And, and that, so there's like two priority lists in my head. That's how I divide it out. Clarence, does that make sense? Wait, it does.
And I think, yeah, yeah. I think one of the things I want to do is, is a follow-up. Sherilyn, I want you to tell us a, some stories of your vaccination outreach, because I think that, I think that, um,
you know, you've had to come up with some pretty interesting facts and things for people when you go out into community to talk to them, whether they really wanted to or they're, I mean, wherever they are on that phase of acceptance. Can you tell us a story?
Okay. I will tell you, I got a lot. I will tell you I was at a vaccination site and they were giving away $50 Target gift cards if you went. And some of them were just bringing others. They were not going to get it. And they said, I don't believe in that. I said, oh, I get it. But have you ever had polio? I go into the polio thing.
But then I said, have you noticed on the news how many people are dying from COVID? The hospitals are full. They have no place to put all the dead bodies. And That was before the vaccine. Now we have something that could prevent it. And you would gamble that you're going to be lucky and never get it. I'm going to gamble on the side of prevention. And let me explain. Some people have long COVID.
That means athletes, professional athletes whose lungs were damaged by COVID. They're lucky if they can walk a block. They're done playing football or basketball. Their careers are over. Also, it could cause blood clots all over the body. People have lost legs, arms. They've got blood clots in their hearts. On autopsy, it shows that hearts and lungs full of blood clots.
So COVID is a deadly killer. It doesn't ask your permission. It's silent. It's sneaky. And by the time you know you've got it, it's probably too late. So after that spiel, many of them say, well, I guess I'll get one.
One thing I could say about this is, you know, for those of us who have been in the public health field, we've heard these kinds of stories were kind of out of sight, out of mind. Okay. So it's like, why should I, you know, like a parent could easily say, why should I give, you know, get a vaccination for my child for measles?
i mean i've never even seen measles i don't even know what it looks like and you know of course then you know those of us in the public health field have to say well the reason you don't is because there's been successful vaccination rates that that have but then when we become lackadaisical
about it boom then we start seeing some upticks in measles and that's happening in in the state of minnesota as for instance okay so we've got some other comments here sheridan i see your hand is up let's see what you have to say yeah this is just a personal story since we were on the topic of covid i unfortunately was one of those folks that lost somebody during the pandemic in 2020 do
She did have comorbidities, and that is a conversation point that a lot of people like to bring up when they talk about COVID. I had graduated college in 2020. I worked really, really hard to be the kid that sits in the front row, to have the extra tassels. I got 4.0. I really worked hard to be that kid in the front, and then I didn't get to walk. And we'd never got to celebrate my graduation.
And that was early in 2020. And I felt that sacrifice was necessary for other people's health and safety. And I will stand by that. But I did lose something there. Six months later, my grandma was diagnosed with COVID. And due to certain political pundits or talking points, The majority of my family did not think that COVID was serious enough to go visit her and say goodbye.
I was the only family member that went and said goodbye to my grandmother on her deathbed. I was not able to enter the building. I was saying goodbye through a window. She called me and she told me... What the hell are you doing out there? Get in here. It's cold out there, Sheridan. What are you doing out there? You're going to catch a cold. You might catch this COVID or something.
She was very delirious at this point. Her lungs were failing. Her cardiovascular system was failing. It was devastating. I could not go and give her a hug to say goodbye. I was the only family member that ever said anything to her. She ended up dying later that night in a room with... This is such a small world.
One of my good friends that I graduated high school with, her grandma was the other person in the room. They died together, holding hands, talking about their grandchildren. And I'm getting choked up right now, but she was a week away from getting vaccinated. And I do believe that if she had been vaccinated, things maybe would have gone differently. So...
I, as her grandchild, as a public health professional, I think it is my duty to get vaccinated for any communicable illness, anything that can keep myself safe, my community safe. And it's really an act of love and it's an act of service. And I just wish that more people saw it as that. And I understand that we live in an individualistic society.
It's hard to think about the community when you're thinking about your own pain and suffering, getting a shot. But I just think about other folks that lost more than just their grandma, that lost their moms, their kids. There was so much loss.
And if I can do one thing to prevent that from happening in my community, I'll get the shot and I'll get the shot again and I'll get it again and I'll get it again and I'll continue to do it. So that's just my little personal story.
Thanks for that. Yeah. So Matthew, I see you're on board here with some thoughts.
Yeah, of course. So Sheridan, I don't know if we've talked about this before, but I actually lost my father from COVID in early, it was January of 2021. So maybe a month or so before the wide release of the vaccine for those early stage folks. And, um, very similar to your experience. The last memories I have with my father were dropping him off at the hospital that morning.
Um, and he never, he never walked out. He never returned. I wasn't allowed to visit. I wasn't allowed to see him. My father died alone in a hospital room surrounded by medical staff, but we were not allowed to visit. Um, he was in the hospital for over a month on the ICU and there were some comorbidities, but the point still stands.
At that time, in those early stages of COVID, there wasn't a solution. There wasn't easy prevention. The only option was to mask up. And unfortunately, my dad worked in a industry that he was one of those mandatory employees or essential workers. That's what they were called, essential workers. And so he went to work every day. And this was in South Carolina. He wore his mask.
He did all the things. But something that's kind of struck with me over the years was unlike other diseases and other things going on in the world, COVID felt different in the level of politicalization that surrounded it. And it became almost, I mean, I don't know if everyone remembers, but during that time, it was like wearing a mask was a political statement.
Getting vaccinated was a political statement. And in a state like South Carolina, that is heavily leaned toward one direction or the other, you saw these areas where COVID was higher in conjunction with that political ideology or political statement.
And so I just question if we hadn't had such a widespread politicalization or division over COVID, mask mandates, vaccinations, the hoax, all of these things, Would my father still be here? I mean, we can always play that what if, but it's like from a public health standpoint, and I know not everyone is in public health, but there are things in place.
There are tools we can use that are proven to prevent health. And in a time of crisis, us as public health professionals were not relied on. It quickly became, you're no longer the expert. We do not care what you think. we're gonna do something completely different. It doesn't matter. And I've experienced firsthand, Sheridan's experienced firsthand.
So many other people have experienced firsthand the detriment effects of when public health doesn't do its job well, when our government leaders don't do their job well. And now we're left here four years later asking, okay, how do we move on with our life? What do we do now? And so you have that grief, but kind of like Sheridan says, My father died begging for a vaccine or treatment and a cure.
It would be a slap in the face to him for me not to be vaccinated. For me, not every time they recommend I'm going to get the shot. But what I want to say is I still to this day have family members that have deeply rooted political ideology that have yet, that were very close with my father and will not get a vaccine. even though they watch the detrimental effects.
So when we talk about this risk management, I don't think it's enough anymore to like, oh, no, we know what can happen. And people are still willing to take on that risk, it seems, for some reason. And that's all I really have to say.
So Sherlyn, thanks for these stories shared in Matthew. I'm going to ask you this, Sherlyn. You've been a health care professional a long time. And many of these vaccines that I listed out have been around us. Do you remember any of the vaccines that we've had, whoa, these years, being as politicized as what we saw with COVID?
No, never, never. And that's frightening because this has been, in this century, the biggest killer, I think, since 1919, when we had, what flu was that? The Spanish flu or something that wiped out millions of people around the globe.
And that's what's so frightening, that something so dangerous and deadly would be politicized, scaring people away from something that could prevent all of this unnecessary death and just all the complications that come along with COVID if you were to survive.
Yeah, and that's just COVID. I mean, you know, like I mentioned, we have these upticks in measles, for instance. It's kind of ironic. In today's Minneapolis Star paper, Jeremy Olson, who again has been on this show, and he seems to be hitting some of the topics that we're very interested in, but he's got an article today about vaccinations and where we're sitting with them.
Fortunately, in the state of Minnesota, as far as COVID is concerned, we aren't seeing as much uptick as we are in some other states. But that doesn't mean we should rest on our laurels here, for sure, with regards to COVID. So going forward on just vaccinations, I'm concerned as a public health professional With the idea that vaccinations have become kind of like a ho-hum type of thing.
And it's like, ah, maybe I'll get it. Maybe I won't get it. These types of things. How can we break through that barrier from a communication standpoint? And from a public health standpoint and a medical standpoint, how can we break through that barrier in order to really identify the importance of all of these?
Can I chime in one thing?
Absolutely, yeah.
One thing I've noticed during this political season, TikTok, what is it? Twitter, whatever. But we need to get young people making up... you know, some short commercials about vaccinations. You can prevent this disease, or this could be you. And in case you missed it, COVID kills. And if it doesn't kill you, it could destroy your life.
your life may never be the same again, but we need it so that it reaches out to young people. It's got to be quick, it's got to be slick, it's got to be something they pay attention to and that they will share.
Yeah, you know, public health messaging was certainly compromised. during COVID and I think it became, it was a function of the immediacy of the situation. However, some of the other things that we need to be vaccinated against, we don't deal with the immediacy of the situation. OK, and you don't see it in front of you or people aren't necessarily dying right in front of your eyes.
But there's still it's still important to get vaccinated. So, Barry, you know, it's like. What should docs be doing? What should physicians be doing in order to break through this kind of anti vaccine crisis? that's going around right now. What should they be doing with their patients?
Well, number one, I certainly don't have all the answers. I do have some ideas and thoughts on that because actually it's very interesting. I was just going to try and, well, I guess pun intended, inject a little sunshine into this conversation. So not with my doctor hat on, but as, you know, like a human, just a person. Okay.
I'm amazed over the, and it's since COVID, how available and typically free you can get vaccines today. Right, right. I mean, everybody probably lives within a few blocks of someplace where they can go and get a vaccine, you know, certainly for again, you know, flu, COVID, you know, the big three are, you know, RSV and cost does not become an issue.
There has been an impact in doctor's offices as we have that really started with COVID with staffing issues. So like the clinic that I'm at, that I go to because, you know, I like to go to my clinic when I need to.
And as soon as you say the word vaccination, they say, well, just, you know, we're so backed up that it's going to be weeks and weeks till we can get you in to just get a vaccine from a nurse or nursing assistant, you know, whoever's going to administer it.
And they recommend, you know, go to, you know, Walgreens or CVS or the Hy-Vee or, I mean, because they say, because you can get in like tomorrow, you know, to get it. So the barrier isn't access, which as we know from a number of topics that we've talked about, access is a big problem. Now, just like there were food deserts in certain neighborhoods, I'm sure there are
CVS Walgreens deserts as well, so that certain communities don't necessarily have that same kind of access. But access, I think, is much, you know, much bigger. And, you know, certainly when I go in for, you know, just a regular exam, you know, my yearly, you know, my doc always covers all, you know, goes through my vaccination list and and goes through that.
And I think that continues to get, you know, to get done. But I think this is not as much a medical issue as some of the other things that we've talked about. And then mostly it's been politicization in our society and that where you stand on vaccines almost becomes like a code word or a code for what party what ideology you support.
And the other piece, and this is not what doctors can do, and then I'll kind of keep it short here. One of the things about, you know, everybody seems to think that if you change your mind about something, that you're a flip-flopper, you know, and that that's a bad thing. And the fundamental parts of science are you have a hypothesis and
And you expect people to disprove that if they can, so that we can develop something that's more true. So whether it be research on masks that comes out that says, well, we thought would be helpful, maybe it's not as helpful as it was, or certain vaccine effectiveness. Over time, we accumulate new information that helps us to get better with that. And what's happened is there's been this erosion
This is just my opinion, an erosion of trust in society about science and public health, because things change with it, even though, yes, it changes because we have new validated information that has us offer a different recommendation. But the population at large, I think there's the sense that if you're changing your mind, then you really don't know what you're talking about.
And so there's this notion of trust. And that to me is how do we get that back? You know, where I guess I remember I was just born after the polio vaccine came out. But I you know, you see the films that when the polio vaccine came out, I mean, it was sort of like. It was like, quote, a national holiday. They closed everything so that people could go and get the polio hits.
It was like your civic duty, which I think, you know, certainly, you know, Sheridan talked about that. You know, that's my civic responsibility to do that. And the population did that. And things have, you know, sadly changed so much that that's not the case. So I don't know.
You know, I guess in response to your question, I don't know what it is that physicians, you know, there's any more that we can do other than we keep bringing it up. We tell people how important it is. Reminders. And let them know that there's really good access and that it doesn't cost people anything. I mean, that's the other thing.
So Clarence, you know, you're our community expert.
I loved it. Thank you. Thank you. A very appropriate time. I want to interject what Barry said. Almost all of those pharmacies that you mentioned are now closing up. We have pharmaceutical deserts every place. You know what I mean? And so doctors recommending people, you know, taking three months, say, go see your local pharmacist. That might, that has changed.
And so I think that that's one of the conversations that we have to have. Yeah. One of my stories, and I've never told this story before, but I was in elementary school when they were giving out the polio shots.
Mm-hmm.
And I remember the guy, the person before me got a shot and they had a little blood come out of their arm. I was so scared of getting that polio shot. But then they said, I don't know, they must have had a newsflash or something. They said, well, we're not going to give out any more polio shots. I was so relieved because I didn't want that polio.
But I was glad that, you know, anyway, that's all over the place. But anyway, the other thing I want to say is this, from a community perspective, I think attitude, and we've been talking about that, people's attitudes about this is so important for people to check. I mean, just for, you know, for facts. I mean, does this or will this affect us? Will this hurt us?
I mean, but again, it is so hard for me as a community person going out when people think like, well, I'm not going to get it because they're going to develop a pill tomorrow. that's going to be able to take care of this. I mean, we have such an attitude about how while we distrust science, we also believe that they're going to be able to find a solution for us the next day.
And so we're willing to play that crap game, hoping that seven or 11 comes up. And in that process, as we've talked about before, it's just so many people are dying while they're waiting. So I think that this conversation is very, very important. I mean, that's really what health chatter is about.
I mean, we, you know, we can't solve all the problems of the world, but we can enter the conversation in a way in which people can feel engaged. So, uh, that may not make any sense, but that's how I feel.
Sherlyn, you brought up, you brought up this idea of, um, of prevention and, um, Certainly in my career, I was always trying to balance the ideas of intervention, which is really in the medical realm. Intervention versus prevention, which is in the public health realm. And intervention, I always said, even when I was teaching about this, intervention is actually more sexy.
Really, in the sense of, oh, you can cure it? Wow. Okay. Now, then on the other side of the equation, prevention. Now, what the hell, what are you talking about here? You know, it's not as exciting as getting cured or getting your arm, a broken arm taken care of. You know, it's, you don't see the immediacy of it like you do with intervention.
And I think that that's part of what we're dealing with here. Then I'll say one more thing, and then I'm gonna let Sherilyn take it from here. You know, if any of you have a pet, like a dog, like everybody knows I have a dog, and without question, there's no question at all about getting a rabies vaccination. I mean, it's just like, you don't even think about it.
You take your dog in and he gets a rabies vaccination and they have to be licensed, okay? Your dog has to be licensed. So what is it? Why is it that we're more in tuned with our pets than we are perhaps with ourselves or our family members? Go ahead, Sherlyn. I mean, I know you're chomping at the bit here. I mean, I could tell.
Well, I'll say some vaccines and medicines because everybody's trying to be on Wagobe now. Have you noticed that?
Yeah, well, that's interesting, yeah.
And I'm going to say Hollywood has led the way from Oprah on down. When she went to the awards, it was like, is that Oprah? It will be everybody. So the same kind of... I don't know, results oriented. And then the research shows that it reduces complications. It saves lives. And I guess we have to use some of that conversation to say vaccines save lives. You can't see it. It's invisible.
You will feel it if you get the disease.
Yeah. No kidding. Okay. You know, one thing I want to recommend to our listening audience, certainly in the state of Minnesota, I know that this is cropping up in other states as well. When you are vaccinated, this is everybody should know this. When you are vaccinated, the records of that go to your respective state health department. OK, and they keep records of your vaccinations.
So if you want, you can get an app for your phone. That's again in the state of Minnesota, but for other listeners around the country, check it in your state as well. It's called Docket, D-O-C-K-E-T. It's an app. And all you do is you put in your information and up will come your vaccination record and also what you are due for. And that's linked with your medical record.
So again, go to Docket to get that app.
Clarence. This has been an exciting conversation. And I knew with Sherilyn, we talked about this earlier. Sherilyn was going to tell us how she really, really felt. Sherilyn, you know, I think at this point, I'm a community health worker. What is it that... In spite of all these things, what do you think community health workers should be sharing with our community about this?
What kind of, do we need additional training in order to make this more effective from a community perspective?
Clarence, after working with you and other community health workers, I have grown to understand how invaluable you all are. And you speak to the community, friends, neighbors, and et cetera, on a level that is based on trust, recognition of shared experiences and things like that. So I think we give them all the information that they need and then help them to craft
a conversation piece to have with neighbors and others in the community so that they can engage on a personal level and as well as getting community input so we can understand what are the barriers that the community is feeling or thinking and have answers for those barriers.
Thank you.
So here's some interesting numbers. So our research crew, in this case, Deandra, put together some background research. And for the listening audience, listen carefully to this. As of October 24th, which is just a few days ago, this is where we're standing with vaccinations. For COVID-19, 4.8% of children and 13.5% of adults have received the updated 24-25 vaccine.
COVID-19 vaccine among adults 65 and older, 30.4% have received the vaccine. Influenza. 25.2% of children and 24.8% of adults have received the vaccine so far. What we should note is that for adults over the age of 65, when you get your flu vaccine, you will be getting a higher dose. I forgot what it's called. Do you recall that? Is it flu zone or something?
I forget the name.
I forgot the name, but you get a higher dosage because of your age. For RSV, 37.6% of adults 75 and older have received the RSV vaccine. So now here's something that's, I think, very concerning to me, at least. This measles outbreak. It's like, okay, come on, people, and here's the deal.
There's currently a measles outbreak in the state of Minnesota, and we're seeing upticks in other states as well. It began in May of this year, of 2024, and it's primarily affecting unvaccinated children. So here's the deal. In 2024, there had been 51 confirmed measles cases in Minnesota. All right, so you could check in your state where you live as well.
Of those 50, of the 54, 50 were unvaccinated. Okay, so. Yes, even if you're vaccinated, there are upticks every once in a while where you can get it. You can get that with COVID too. You could be vaccinated. But the severity of the disease is decreased significantly if you get vaccinated. So bottom line is don't listen to all the hype.
Do what's best for you to get protected against these diseases that have affected mankind in serious ways. And you don't want to get them. Let's put it that way. You don't want to get them. Sherlyn, I'm going to circle back to this idea of communication. What's a message? Like if you were, I don't know, the commissioner of health or, you know, what would you say?
I mean, you'd get on the radio, you'd get on, you know, well, podcasts like this, you'd get on, you'd get out there and you'd say, what?
I think there's a video I think MDH put out about me on about getting the COVID vaccination. Okay. It was short and sweet.
Yeah.
And basically why you should get vaccinated. Okay. But COVID's a killer. If you love your family, if you care about others in the community, I'd get vaccinated. Anyway, it was short, it was sweet. It might not have even been 30 seconds. My message to the community would be, I'd rather prevent than to be in the hospital being treated.
Because after having just come out of 11 wonderful days in the hospital, I don't, that's a place I don't want to be.
Yeah.
I want anything not to get that ill again. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's do a quick round robin. So Clarence, some last thoughts here on this.
Yeah. So we have rising cases of COVID. of diseases where we need to make sure that our community is immunized. And I just, I just think that people should be made aware of the information and they should make an informed decision, you know, and you know, as we've been talking about today, you know, think about yourself and also think about your family and the impact that it could have on them.
You know, if you take unnecessary risk around these diseases, that's my thought.
Yeah. Yeah. Any of the crew, Sheridan, Aaron, Deandra, Matthew, any comments from you guys?
Yeah, I'll jump in here. Yeah, go ahead. One of the things that I just kind of want to say is I would encourage people to listen to your leaders. Listen to your scientists. Listen to your experts. Listen to the folks who do this day in, day out, and have the knowledge. I think too often we get caught up in what is on our social media pages or what is quickly in the news headlines.
But I think it's really important to remember that there are people like us, like others who have dedicated their life to studying this and dedicated to being an expert on vaccines and health information and disease prevention. And so I think in these times we need to really remember we've planned for this and we've prepared for this. Now let's rely on it. Let's not reinvent it. Let's not.
And I think anyone, while I encourage folks to research it and engage with that, if anyone is attacking these systems and infrastructure that we have in place, let's maybe evaluate the motivation behind that and make decisions accordingly.
Yeah. That's a great point.
Yeah.
Great, great point. Here's one thing that I've been asked of late. And it's, it's, and, You can chime in on this one too, Sherilyn. You can get your COVID shot and your flu shot at the same time. Okay. So what does that do? That it's basically, you know, let's be frank. It's basically addressing a convenience factor. Okay.
So you don't have to go to your pharmacy or you don't have to go to your clinic. OK, so here's here's the balance between that. And this is, you know, just for consideration purposes. One is, yes, you could do that. And however, on the other hand, separating them. In other words, get your flu shot, and then maybe a week later or so, go get your COVID shot.
And the reason why is if you might be sensitive to reactions, then you know what you're reacting to, okay? And it's not going to knock you. If you get two of them at once, it's not going to knock you for a loop, okay? So ask yourself. It's okay to do it, but... Listen to yourself and make that decision yourself of whether or not you should get them together or separate. Okay.
Barry. I'll keep this on more along the lines of what Clarence said. Even if you don't want to get the vaccine for yourself, get it for the people that you care about. Exactly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Any other last thoughts on this? It shouldn't be a hard subject is what drives me crazy about this. It should not be a difficult subject. It's like, hello, get vaccinated. But because of what's circling around us, don't let that affect you. And I think, Matthew, you brought that up very, very well. Don't let that affect you or your decision making.
What you should do is think about your health and think about the health of others. Sherlyn, I want to thank you so much. You're a ray of sunshine when we're dealing with these public health issues. And I will underscore for you, it's not just around vaccinations that you bring some great messaging for all of us. And so thank you. Thank you so much. For our listening audience,
We have shows that are coming out, so watch out for those. Our next show that we will be having, we are going to be looking at the Community Prevention Services. Actually, it's called the Community Preventive Services Task Force. and they've come out with their community guide. This is at the national level. We'll be doing that.
Also, we're going to be looking at pediatric blood disorders and also veterans' health. So we've got some interesting subjects coming up. So keep listening to Health Chatter and keep health chatting away.