489: School Vaccinations, Chemical Weapon Disposal

JANSON SILVERS: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Thursday, August 24, 2023. I'm Janson Silvers. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

SAMEER VOHRA: 

We hope that this can encourage kids and their parents across the state to get up to date, stay healthy, and have a really successful school year.

SILVERS: 

As Illinois gears up for a new school year, Sameer Vohra, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, says they're also launching a new vaccination campaign.

VOHRA: 

So, the 'Don't Wait, Get your Kids Up-to-Date' campaign is an important initiative here at Illinois the Department of Public Health. As many of your listeners know, immunizations may be the single most important public health advancement of our lifetime. But the more that people don't take advantage of this critically important tool for public health, whether through lack of opportunity or lack of information, the less effective it will be.

SILVERS: 

Vohra knows how busy parents are and says timing the campaign with back to school events is a way to keep vaccinations front-of-mind.

VOHRA: 

And we just wanted to use this campaign, our 'Don't Wait, Get Your Kids Up-to-Date' campaign, to make sure that this issue was front and center for parents to encourage them to talk to their own pediatrician, their family doc, their health care provider.

SILVERS: 

The Illinois Department of Public Health is using all resources available to get the message out.

VOHRA: 

This campaign has a heavy social media and digital platform focus. And it really seeks to reach those busy parents across the state. So, we're appreciative of the media programs like this one at ASTHO that really gets this issue front and center and spreads our message. Our focus is on our kids and as we soon transition to the fall and winter season, we know respiratory illnesses will be on the rise.

SILVERS: 

More information on the campaign is in the shownotes.

Two organizations not often paired together are marking a big milestone. The CDC and DOD are both celebrating the success of the Chemical Weapons Demilitarization Program. Here's Terry Tincher with the CDC on the destruction of chemical weapons 40 years in the making.

TERRY TINCHER: 

There were 30,000 tons of material in stockpile that Congress ordered the Department of Defense to destroy and CDC has been overseeing that since destruction began. We've done it by reviewing, advising, making recommendations on their plans. The big celebration is the 30,000 tons that we started with over four years ago have now all been destroyed, as of the first of July.

SILVERS: 

Tincher says the US isn't alone in this move.

TINCHER: 

Chemical Weapons Convention was organized by the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons, OPCW and the United States signed that treaty in 1997, saying that we would destroy everything that we had. And to-date, over 180 countries have signed that Chemical Weapons Treaty.

SILVERS: 

The destruction of the weapons also gives a lot of U.S. community some relief, because those stockpiles were in their backyard.

TINCHER: 

Many of these rockets, mortars, and other weapons had been in storage for up to 60 years and were beginning to deteriorate. They were beginning to leak. In the case of rockets, static electricity or lightning hitting could actually cause them to ignite or launch. So, they posed a very significant threat to the nearby communities.

SILVERS: 

In the shownotes, there's more information on the Chemical Weapons Demilitarization Program.

While it's getting less media attention than it used to, COVID-19 is still very much a threat, especially to Native communities. O'Keyla Cooper has more.

O'KEYLA COOPER: 

American Indian and Alaska Native communities, like other vulnerable groups, are at higher risk of COVID-19 complications. One challenge was ensuring vaccine access for the populations. Hear three public health experts discuss their efforts to prioritize vaccine equity in these communities during the pandemic in a recent Public Health Review segment. Click the link in the show notes for the full episode.

SILVERS: 

Finally, today, stay informed by subscribing to this podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Apple, Spotify, Google, we're on them all and want to make sure you're always up-to-date. Make sure you never miss an episode delivered straight to your mobile device every day at 5 a.m. Eastern.

And if you have a minute, please take the time to give us a review. We'd like to know what you think. That'll do it for today's newscast. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Janson Silvers. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.