Find strategic guidance, tips and examples for how public health practitioners and advocates can communicate effectively about vaccines in ways that foster trust, in this video series from PHI’s Berkeley Media Studies Group.

Communicating about vaccines: Meeting people where they are

Shame is all too common in communication about vaccines, but we should avoid it because it is not effective at changing individuals’ hearts and minds. Instead, as research has shown, we need to demonstrate empathy, listen without judgment, and share messages using credible local spokespeople who are easy for audiences to relate to. Learn more in this video, the fourth in a series from Berkeley Media Studies Group.

Transcript

Best practices in strategic communication tell us that shame is not an effective tool for changing individual behavior. This is true for any health issue, including vaccination.

PAMELA MEJIA, BMSG HEAD OF RESEARCH: When people feel shamed or stigmatized about their choices, they tend to retreat; they tend to become defensive; they stop asking questions; they close themselves off to new information. So, you can clearly see how, in the context of immunizations, shame would be very problematic.

Parents who feel that they are being shamed or branded as anti-vaxxers just for asking questions about medical treatments for their child might become very defensive, might retreat further into distrust and dislike of the medical community and vaccinations.

I think establishing trust and rapport is critical to communicating effectively about vaccines and why they matter.

NARRATOR: That begins with our messages — and our willingness to listen.

MEJIA: So, language is a really important consideration. I always advise people to try and avoid the phrase anti-vaxx or anti-vaxxer because it is stigmatizing; it is limiting; it does make people defensive and can close them off to hearing more information. There is value in using phrases like “people who are questioning” or “people who are unsure about vaccination.”

NARRATOR: It’s also important to listen without judgment when questions arise.

MEJIA: We talk about meeting people where they are — well, we really have to be in there with people to do that. It is completely normal and valid and right and to have questions, especially about something that is going into your body or the body of somebody that you love.

I would caution people who are trying to communicate about vaccines — I would caution them against pretending that misinformation doesn’t exist. To put another way, I think we just need to acknowledge that there’s a lot of information out there; we need to make people feel comfortable and heard in having questions about it, and we need to share that we’re kind of all living in this information-overload world.

NARRATOR: In an op-ed for The Cincinnati Enquirer, two co-founders of a community engagement start-up emphasize the importance of listening directly to community residents’ concerns. They held six focus groups in Ohio “to identify strategies to encourage more people to feel comfortable receiving the vaccine.” Their top lessons included acknowledging hesitancy with respect, focusing on how vaccination keeps vulnerable people safe, and using relatable local messengers.

MEJIA: There are some people who, perhaps, will never be moved on vaccinations. But there are many people who are just questioning, who just want to know a little bit more, who just need a little bit of reassurance. I think it’s important that we focus on people who, maybe are questioning but can be moved, who can — with additional information, with additional space to ask questions, with authentic messengers they can relate to — might well be moved to embrace vaccines and embrace being immunized.

Communicating about vaccines: How to discuss racial equity in vaccine uptake

To help ensure equitable vaccination rates in all neighborhoods, public health advocates and practitioners must center communities of color in their messages. Being silent on racism allows vaccine opponents to invoke medical oppression in their communication, stoking further division, hesitancy, and distrust. This video, the third in a series from BMSG, offers strategic communication tips for advancing racial and health equity in immunizations.

Transcript

[KIM GARCIA, BMSG RESEARCHER]: Communities of color have many reasons for having hesitancy around vaccines. Medical racism and medical oppression have been experienced and continue to be experienced by people of color. There’s also a lack of representation of providers — medical providers and even public health practitioners, who we see in our communities who may not look like us, and so there’s a barrier of trust that needs to be built when we don’t see ourselves or see our lived experiences represented.

[NARRATOR]: So, how do we go about building trust with community partners? For starters, public health advocates and practitioners cannot stay silent on racial inequity and the structures that create it.

[GARCIA]: To leave race out of the conversation is really leaving it up to vaccine opponents to take up that issue themselves. We found that vaccine opponents bring up instances of medical racism and medical oppression ultimately to undermine trust in the medical system. By using race to divide us, they’re turning us against each other, they’re turning us against medical providers and government overall.

[NARRATOR]: When advocates address racial equity in messages about vaccines, they must go beyond acknowledging past harms.

[SHADDAI MARTINEZ-CUESTAS, BMSG HEAD OF TRAINING]: Focusing on hesitancy has been a way to deflect responsibility for equitable distribution on the front end.

[NARRATOR]: To make sure their messages don’t reinforce hesitancy, advocates must also discuss structural barriers, many of which predate the pandemic.

[GARCIA]: Lack of health insurance, lack of transportation, lack of housing that gives someone a safe and stable place to even think about getting vaccinated in the first place. We know that, for example, even your zip code could be shaping your risk for exposure. We also we can talk about lack of protections that are in place for frontline and essential workers, who are predominantly people of color.

And so, that really points to someone in power who can put those protections in place. So, when we talk about the landscape, when we talk about the structures that can hinder people’s access to vaccines, we can then point to solutions that are structural and systemic solutions. Rather than “this person needs to be able to get a vaccine,” but, “how can we improve our structures and systems so that all people can get vaccines?”

[MARTINEZ-CUESTAS]: I want to point out an article by Politico that it is focusing on the systems instead of just blaming individuals. The chief medical executive of Minnesota has a really great quote in this article, talking about how the best public health happens when you go into neighborhoods and when you’re working with communities and how it is the duty and responsibility for public health to go to where their communities are at.

[NARRATOR]: Advocates can also advance equity by including values in their messages.

[GARCIA]: When we talk about vaccines, we’re really thinking about the greater good, our collective, our community. These are the values that we hold because we know that communities of color are being disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Vaccine opponents, on the other hand, tend to use a very individual frame; they really look at my personal choices, my personal freedoms. That creates greater division and, if we stay silent on racial equity from a public health side, vaccine opponents will only continue to stoke those divisions.

Communicating about vaccines: Illuminating the context for access and hesitancy

To boost vaccine rates, public health practitioners and advocates need more than just compelling messages; we also must confront the practical barriers that make it hard for some people to access the vaccine — and credible information about it. In this video, the second in a series from BMSG, we discuss the context for why vaccination rates are lagging in some communities. Learn more about COVID-related communication and view other videos at www.bmsg.org/covid-19.

Transcript

[NARRATOR]: There’s no shortage of news about COVID-19 vaccination rates. Stories about state and national rankings, pockets of vaccine hesitancy, and the health consequences of being unvaccinated routinely make headlines. Less common are stories that make visible the context for whether people can easily access the vaccine and credible information about it. BMSG’s research team has gained insight into what’s missing from conversations surrounding vaccination, after studying news coverage of the issue.

[PAMELA MEJIA, BMSG HEAD OF RESEARCH]: One of my favorite quotes that came from the research that we did was from a physician who talked about vaccine deserts. So, these are places where access to vaccination sites is very, very limited: There might be very few of them; they might have limited hours, limited staff; they might be difficult to access via public transportation; they might be difficult to access financially.

Communities that have been marginalized and tend to be ignored for things like healthy food, for health care facilities, etc., they also tend to be ignored and left out of access to vaccination sites. As advocates and practitioners — as people who want to increase rates of vaccination — we have to illustrate for folks that sometimes many people want to be vaccinated, but they simply can’t.

[NARRATOR]: Although stories illustrating access issues are relatively rare, our researchers did find some good examples. In this article from The Washington Post, the executive director of the American Public Health Association explains why it’s important to expand coverage in ways that highlight practical barriers. He says, quote, “If you’ve got to take two buses and walk a few blocks, plus hesitancy, where is the incentive to go get that shot?”

Another factor hindering vaccination rates is a lack of access to trustworthy information about it.

[PAMELA MEJIA, BMSG HEAD OF RESEARCH]: There is a long history of misinformation and disinformation from vaccine-hesitant or vaccine-skeptical folks. It’s interesting that they — that vaccine opponents tend to sow a lot of distrust of medical science and medical professionals because, at the same time, they try to evoke or mimic medical professionals and medical work.

When we were doing our analysis of documents, we found a number of fact sheets from organizations like the CDC, and we also found fact sheets that looked almost identical in terms of their layout, their formatting, some of their language choices, etc., but they came from vaccine-hesitant or vaccine-skeptical organizations.

There’s no way of knowing what the individual media environment or messaging environment somebody’s been exposed to is, which makes it doubly important that we be reflective of and acknowledge access issues, and, you know, really be prepared to talk about some of the uncomfortable questions that people may have. We need each other’s help in figuring out where to go and where to ask questions and what information to trust when it comes to vaccinations.

Look at who’s providing the information — whether it’s from a reputable source or not. If data is being cited, is it coming from a reputable place, or, um, is it sourced at all? If data is presented without a citation, that’s a sign that this might not be a very good source. And look at the timeliness; look at how current the information that’s being presented is.

Establishing that there are questions, there is competing information, that there can be a lot of confusing and conflicting information in the world is an important step towards making people feel heard. It’s kind of a way of acknowledging our shared humanity.

Communicating about vaccines: Investing in trusted messengers

Transcript

[NARRATOR]: Vaccines save lives. We know that from research, but many people remain hesitant to get their shots.

To boost confidence in the vaccine, we not only need to give people access to it in places they trust, but we also need to deliver accurate information about it through trusted messengers.

[SARAH PEREZ-SANZ, BMSG RESEARCHER] Dr. Anthony Fauci is definitely an expert, but some people may think that, oh, he doesn’t know enough about my family. He’s not an expert in my kids.

[SURGEON GENERAL DR. VIVEK MURTHY]: What we have to do is not only get information out there through traditional sources and through the media; it’s working with local nurses and doctors, with teachers, with faith leaders, and others in local communities to make sure they have information that they can use to share.

[NARRATOR]: Research from the Berkeley Media Studies Group aligns with the surgeon general’s recommendation.

[PEREZ-SANZ]: So, you know, data is important. We collect data as part of our research, but stories are really what drives the data home for people. So, if someone has their own experience from going from vaccine hesitancy to having their kids or themselves fully vaccinated, that journey is really important to share with others. And while we can capture that in our research as data, it really only matters to people if you tell the story of how they went from vaccine hesitant to fully vaccinated.

Public health advocates and champions can reach out to find people who have decided to be vaccinated, and who are excited to be vaccinated, and talk to them about what being vaccinated means to them.

You can have them author op-eds, letters to the editor, you could even use them as contacts; if a reporter were to call you, you could say, “Hey, you should also talk to so-and-so because they are super excited to get vaccinated, and they have a really great story.”

[NARRATOR]: BMSG monitors the news to find out what that looks like in practice.

[PEREZ-SANZ]: This article [from The Wall Street Journal] came out right when 12- to 15-year-olds were starting to be able to be vaccinated. So, people were signing up; people were excited to get their kids vaccinated because it’s been a long year and a half. And so this article includes quotes from youth and then also parents. So, there’s just a lot of great voices in this article.

First, I want to highlight Elliott Ferris. He’s a 13-year-old, and his mom signed him up for a vaccine appointment at his pediatrician’s office. And Elliott, he was so excited, he said, quote, “That’s so dope!” and that quote “I’ve had such a long year-and-a-half without friends. We’re just so bored and a little bit lonely.”

So Elliott really speaks to the fact that, you know, he gave up a lot. He had to sacrifice a lot over this past year. Now that he will be vaccinated, he can get back to doing the things that he loves to do with his friends.

For more tips on communicating effectively about COVID-19 and vaccines, visit bmsg.org/covid-19.

How are public health department and delivery system leaders successfully navigating the pandemic response? How can we support an effective public health system, now and for the future?

Held in winter 2021, this two part virtual forum from Kaiser Permanente’s Institute for Health Policy explored opportunities to strengthen partnerships and collaboration between public health and the broader health care delivery system; identified barriers public health and delivery system leaders face—including financial, workforce, and infrastructure challenges—and discussed ways to ensure a well-financed and supported public health system in the future. Presenters also shared promising policy solutions to promote and improve our public health system in ways that address public health needs and advance health equity.

The discussion featured Dr. Mary Pittman, President and CEO of the Public Health Institute; Greg A. Adams, CEO of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan; Anthony A. Barrueta, Senior Vice President of Government Relations for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and PHI Board member, and more.

Part 2: Building a stronger system for the future

Building off the perspectives elevated in part 1, this discussion focused on how to build a stronger system in the future that improves the public’s health in an equitable way, both in public health emergencies and in the longer term.

• Mary A. Pittman, DrPH, Chief Executive Officer and President of the Public Health Institute
• John Auerbach, MBA, Director of Intergovernmental and Strategic Affairs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• David Grossman, MD, MPH, interim Senior Vice President of social and community health for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Hospitals
• Cecilia Oregón, MPP, MPH, Executive Director for Kaiser Permanente’s Institute for Health Policy
• Anand Parekh, MD, MPH, Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC) chief medical advisor providing clinical and public health expertise across the organization.
• Lauren Smith, MD, MPH, Chief Health Equity and Strategy Officer for the CDC Foundation

Part 1: Navigating the pandemic response

In this discussion, speakers elevate perspectives from public health department and delivery system leaders to gain a clearer understanding of their experiences and lessons learned responding to the pandemic.

Part one speakers:

• Greg A. Adams, Chair and CEO of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Hospitals
• Oxiris Barbot, MD, Physician, Public Health Practitioner and Innovative Leader
• Anthony A. Barrueta, JD, Senior Vice President of Government Relations for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Hospitals
• Patty Hayes, RN, MN, former Director of Public Health Seattle & King County
• Stephen Parodi, MD, Executive Vice President of External Affairs, Communications, and Brand at The Permanente Federation
• Megan Ranney, MD, MPH, Warren Alpert Endowed Professor of Emergency Medicine at Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Founding Director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an increase in telehealth usage, resulting in many temporary telehealth policy changes on the federal and state level. PHI’s Center for Connected Health Policy’s Medicaid & Telehealth: A Policy Webinar Series focused on topics such as audio-only, policies that have been made permanent, and the Medicaid program’s reasoning for those decisions.

Listen to the recordings to learn from high-level experts and administrators representing 7 different Medicaid agencies or other state offices (Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont). 

Speakers discussed the unique approaches they took to crafting and deciding on what telehealth policies to implement and how COVID-19 has impacted recent decisions. Among some of the highlights from this four-week series:

• The thought and efforts state programs had put in to developing policies to meet the needs of their enrollees.
• The different approaches to gathering data to help inform policy changes.
• The steps states have taken toward ensuring people with disabilities are able to access services via telehealth.

Throughout the series, speakers emphasized that telehealth does indeed benefit patients. While states may have taken different approaches and crafted different policies, they all acknowledged the benefit of ensuring telehealth was available in some capacity for their communities to access.

Access the recordings of the webinar series

Telehealth & Medicaid: Medicaid & Audio Only

September 17, 2021

Policymakers on the federal and state level continue to decide which of the temporary telehealth policies to keep after the public health emergency is over. This webinar focuses on the permanent telehealth policy changes Medicaid programs have made and what went into those decisions. See additional resources from the webinar.

Telehealth & Medicaid – Medicaid Telehealth Policy & Data, Evaluations, & Stakeholders

September 24

COVID-19 has spurred Medicaid programs to expand their telehealth policies. It has also encouraged them to examine the effects and impacts of such policies and engaging stakeholders more often than before. Learn about the efforts some Medicaid programs have made in collecting data and working with other groups as they work on solidifying the next steps in their telehealth policy development. See additional resources from the webinar.

Telehealth & Medicaid – Telehealth & Patients with Disabilities

October 1

As telehealth became more widely utilized during COVID-19, it became clear that some segments of the population may be left behind due to inability to access the technology. One segment of the population, patients with disabilities, may have encountered unique barriers to accessing care through telehealth. This webinar focuses on what Medicaid programs and other state agencies have done to help ensure people with disabilities can utilize telehealth. See additional resources.

Telehealth & Medicaid – Medicaid Telehealth Permanent Policies

October 8

Policymakers on the federal and state level continue to decide which of the temporary telehealth policies to keep after the public health emergency is over. This webinar explores the permanent telehealth policy changes Medicaid programs have made and what went into those decisions. See additional resources.

The Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP) has also issued a summary report of the Fall series. To watch recordings of webinars held within the Winter and Spring Medicaid and Telehealth webinar series, visit CCHP’s webinars page or read the respective summary reports of the earlier series, Winter and Spring on CCHP’s reports page.

VIEW THE REPORT

Meet Black leaders who are working in community development at the intersection of race, health and poverty, in a video series from PHI’s Build Healthy Places Network and Purpose Built Communities.

The series aims to elevate Black leaders in community development through storytelling, showcasing their leadership style and contributions to the field as members of the Purpose Built Communities Network.

Craig Glover, Executive Director of Northend RISE in West Palm Beach, FL

The third and final video in the series features Craig Glover, Executive Director of Northend RISE in West Palm Beach, FL describing how partnerships to elevate the health of the Northend RISE community are shaping health outcomes and enhancing quality — and even quantity — of life for residents.

Regina Hall, Executive Director of Boston-Thurmond United

The second interview in the series features Regina Hall, Executive Director of Boston-Thurmond United in Winston Salem, NC, conducted by Zachary Travis, Research Associate of Build Healthy Places Network. Regina shares strategies and approaches that have helped engage partners who provide access to critical healthcare resources for residents of the Boston-Thurmond neighborhood.

Danny Shoy, President and CEO of the East Lake Foundation 

The first interview in the series features Danny Shoy, President and CEO of the East Lake Foundation, conducted by Zachary Travis, Research Associate of Build Healthy Places Network. Shoy shares how community wellness shaped his resident-centered approach, which helps make the East Lake neighborhood a place where residents live longer, healthier lives.

Learn more about the series:

Created by PHI’s Public Health Alliance of Southern California, this video series elevates promising and replicable practices for equitable vaccine distribution. The videos showcase real-life community-informed and equity-centered practices that reach disproportionately impacted low-income communities, and communities of color.

Reaching Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islanders in Vaccine Distribution (6/17/2021)

Recognizing the longstanding challenges that NHPI communities have faced, the Utah Pacific Islander Health Coalition (UPIHC), in partnership with several local health departments, like the Utah County Health Department, and the Utah State Health Department, mobilized early to begin hosting weekly vaccination clinics focused on increasing access to vaccinations for NHPI community members in a safe, trusting, and culturally affirming way. Many of the mobile vaccination clinic efforts aimed at reaching NHPI community members in Utah are coordinated partnerships through the UPIHC member network. The mobile vaccination clinics are tailored to create a space that is culturally grounded, and feels safe and comfortable for the NHPI community, which includes partnering with faith-based partners and hosting clinics in familiar locations. The partnership efforts between Utah’s local health departments (LHDs) and UPIHC has been a leading factor behind the distribution of 1,000’s of vaccines to the NHPI community throughout the State.

Reaching Transgender Community Members in Vaccine Distribution (5/13/2021)

The Orange County Health Care Agency (OCHCA) has focused their mobile COVID-19 vaccination clinic efforts on communities most disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. In response to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on transgender, gender non-conforming (GNC) and gender nonbinary (GNB) residents, specifically residents of color, OCHCA co-led a mobile vaccination clinic event with their community partner, Alianza Translatinx. The event was designed to foster an inclusive space, free of discrimination or judgement to ensure transgender, GNC and GNB residents felt safe and comfortable receiving the vaccine. From registration, to vaccination, to observation, the partners took intentional steps to create an affirming and welcoming space. Thanks to in-person and online outreach efforts from partners like Alianza Translatinx, they were able to administer over 250 vaccines to community residents, the majority of whom were members of the Orange County transgender, GNC, and GNB community. OCHCA and their partners plan to build on the success of this event in order to reach more disproportionately impacted transgender residents throughout Orange County.

Read: Creating Safe and Affirming Spaces for Vaccine Distribution

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Improving Vaccination Accessibility for Individuals Living with Disabilities (4/16/2021)

Health leaders from The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s (LADPH) Center for Health Equity, in partnership with key community stakeholders with lived experience and organizations that serve communities with disabilities, have developed and are working to implement a set of core recommendations to improve access to COVID-19 vaccinations for individuals living with disabilities. The recommendations developed are a recognition of the urgent need to develop processes and systems to improve accessibility for communities with disabilities throughout Los Angeles County. While the recommendations address current COVID-19 vaccination efforts, these recommendations may be applied to COVID-19 testing and broader emergency response activities. In this video, we are joined by Heather Jue Northover, LADPH Center for Health Equity Director and Hector Ochoa, Director of Public Policy for the Southern California Resource Services for Independent Living, as they discuss the importance of centering individuals with lived experience in designing vaccine distribution solutions that truly work for all.

Read: Improving Vaccination Accessibility for Individuals Living with Disabilities

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Health and Housing in St. Louis (3/29/2021)

The City of St. Louis Health Department partnered with the St. Louis Housing Authority to help register hard hit communities for COVID-19 vaccination. In St. Louis, data from a January 2021 survey revealed that of 17,000 individuals who registered their interest in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, less than 3,000 were from under-resourced and low-income neighborhoods such as North St. Louis.

Leaders like Dr. Fredrick Echols with the City of St. Louis Department of Health were proactive in outreach to communities most disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Partnering with Alana Green, Executive Director of the St. Louis Housing Authority, and staff from their Resident Initiatives Team, they called residents and assisted them in setting up vaccine appointments. Engaging the Housing Authority as a trusted partner and messenger for this community resulted in vaccinating over 300 seniors in just one clinic effort, roughly 98% of whom identified as Black/African American! An invite only follow-up vaccination clinic with Housing Authority residents resulted in a 96.3% return rate for the second dose of COVID vaccinations. The partnership between the Health Department and Housing Authority has yielded other promising benefits to housing authority residents, including food distribution, and distribution of personal protective equipment. This partnership serves as a promising model for intra-governmental partnerships to reach disproportionately impacted community members in vaccine distribution and administration.

Read: Intra-Governmental Partnerships to Reach City of St. Louis Housing Authority Residents

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Protect Chicago Plus (3/18/2021)

In January 2021 Chicago City Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Protect Chicago Plus, a targeted COVID-19 vaccination distribution program designed with equity as the central strategy to ensure that vaccines are reaching communities hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Protect Chicago Plus is a unified effort between the City of Chicago, the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), and local community partners with the goal of changing the map of disease burden and ending the pandemic. The City’s efforts have successfully increased the percent of 1st dose vaccines going to Black and Latinx Chicagoans from 18% in the first week of distribution to close to 59% in the most recent week of distribution (as of March 9, 2021); a percent equal to the City’s total Black and Latinx population. In light of their early successes, partners in Chicago remain steadfast in their commitment to lead with equity in vaccine distribution.

Read: Data-Driven, Neighborhood-Based Strategies to Reach Black and Latinx Chicagoans

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Riverside Vaccinates Farmworkers (3/9/2021)

Riverside County Public Health Department, in partnership with the Coachella Valley Equity Collaborative (spearheaded by the Desert Healthcare District & Foundation (DHCD) and community-based partners, like TODEC), launched mobile vaccination clinics that brought COVID-19 vaccines directly to farmworkers in the fields.

Community-based partners helped register farmworkers, who have been some of the most impacted community members due to COVID-19, at their worksites. They also worked to answer questions in preferred languages, including indigenous languages such as Purepecha. Partners in these efforts worked to address a broad range of concerns during vaccine registration and administration, including concerns related to vaccine side effects, immigration status and public charge. To date, the mobile vaccination clinics have successfully vaccinated well over 5,000 farmworkers throughout the Eastern Coachella Valley (and counting!). These successful efforts have also been elevated by the State as promising practices to replicate across California. This collaboration was made possible with funding support from the Public Health Institute’s Together Toward Health Initiative.

Read: Strategies for Prioritizing Farmworkers in Vaccine Distribution: Cross-Jurisdictional Learning Session Summary

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Black and Well in the LBC (3/3/2021)

Early on in the pandemic, the City of Long Beach Health Department was acutely aware of the disparate impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic was having on low-income communities and communities of color throughout the City, especially Black, Latinx, and Cambodian communities. Moreover, early COVID-19 vaccination data revealed that the hardest-hit communities were not getting vaccinated at the same rates as less impacted communities. In an effort to ensure more equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, the City has launched a series of partnerships with community-based organizations to host mobile vaccination clinics aimed at reaching Black, Latinx and Cambodian community members.

“Black and Well in the LBC” was a one-day mobile vaccination clinic held on Wednesday, February 10^th, hosted in partnership with the City, the Long Beach Health Department, community-based non-profit Elite Skills Development and The Long Beach Minister’s Alliance. The vaccination event was held in Central Long Beach, a historically Black community, with a goal of reaching older Black Long Beach residents. The creation of this culturally affirming space, with trusted community partners in the lead, resulted in setting up vaccination appointments for 200 people, of which approximately 95% identified as Black or African American.

Read: Advancing Equity in the City of Long Beach: Reaching Older Black Adults Through Faith-Based Mobile Clinic Partnerships

COVID-19 has forever changed many aspects of our lives, including how health care is delivered. With the arrival of the pandemic, a quick pivot to the use of telehealth to provide services was made, necessitating in many temporary telehealth policy changes on the federal and state level. Much attention has been paid to federal Medicare telehealth policy changes, but there has been less focus on the actions taken by state Medicaid programs.

PHI’s Center for Connected Health Policy’s (CCHP) Medicaid telehealth policy webinar series addresses this gap in knowledge and also provides a forum for states to share their innovative work on telehealth policy and engage with other state Medicaid programs.

With nine Medicaid programs participating, the purpose of the Spring 2021 Series was to examine specific areas of telehealth policy and their impacts on particular patient populations. Participating in the series were representatives from Medicaid programs in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Texas, and Washington.

Listen to the recordings to learn from high-level experts and administrators representing 10 different Medicaid agencies, as well as experts from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission.

Speakers discussed the policies they have instituted during the pandemic that impacted the aforementioned areas and what temporary policies they will, or are considering, retaining. For some of the programs, their general telehealth policies applied to all populations, but a few did note that some services may have been more difficult to deliver via technology depending on age. For example, very young children may have been more difficult to examine via technology than an older child who may have been more willing to sit still during a telehealth encounter. As with other Medicaid programs, many of the speakers noted the significant use of telehealth to deliver mental and behavioral health services.

Access the recordings of the webinar series

1. Access and Equity in Medicaid Telehealth Policy
2. Medicaid Telehealth Policies for Children and Youth
3. Medicaid Telehealth Policies for Seniors
4. Telemental Health & State Medicaid Policies

Report: Telehealth & Medicaid: A Policy Webinar Series

CCHP also completed and released a report summarizing the four webinars hosted during the Spring series. The report dives into the findings gleaned from the presentations and synthesizes key takeaways from each Medicaid agency’s COVID-19 telehealth policy activities.

Download the report

Trust and trustworthiness are a significant part of achieving equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. Watch the recordings from this Dialogue4Health Web Forum series to explore issues related to building trust and trustworthiness between communities and those bringing vaccines.

Hesitancy, Equity, and Transparency: In Conversation with Pastor and Lawmaker James D. Gailliard on the COVID-19 Vaccine Roll Out (6/17/2021)

In a previously recorded, live conversation, PHI CEO & President Dr. Mary Pittman and Pastor James D. Gailliard, a state representative in the North Carolina Assembly, reflect upon efforts to achieve equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and explore how faith-based organizations and state policy interventions work toward this goal in North Carolina.

In this web forum, speakers address:

• Issues related to building trust and trustworthiness between communities and those bringing vaccinations to the communities;
• Successful strategies for reaching vaccine-hesitant communities;
• How data can be used to ensure an equitable vaccine response;
• How vaccine distribution strategies have evolved as supply increases; and
• What we have learned about how to build stronger and lasting relationships between communities and public health in preparation for the next pandemic or natural disaster.

Hesitancy, Equity, and Transparency: Rolling out the COVID-19 Vaccine (5/6/2021)

In this previously-recorded Dialogue4Health Web Forum, moderator Dr. Mary Pittman, PHI CEO & President, and speakers—including Dr. Bechara Choucair, Vaccinations Coordinator for the White House COVID Response Team, responsible for overseeing the national vaccination efforts under the Biden-Harris administration—discuss strateiges for how policymakers, health care providers, pharmacies, and community-based organizations can build trust, address population-specific needs, leverage trusted community resources and more.

In this web forum, speakers address:

• Issues related to building trust and trustworthiness between communities and those bringing vaccinations to the communities;
• Successful strategies for reaching vaccine-hesitant communities;
• How data can be used to ensure an equitable vaccine response;
• How vaccine distribution strategies have evolved as supply increases; and
• What we have learned about how to build stronger and lasting relationships between communities and public health in preparation for the next pandemic or natural disaster.

New Meaning of “Persistence” for an Environmental Chemical Banned 50 Years Ago

In this webinar, Dr. Cohn, director of PHI’s Child Health and Development Studies, discussed her recent research which found that young women today may face increased health risks linked to breast cancer due to their grandmothers’ exposure to the banned pesticide DDT.

This was the first study to report on the health effects of exposure to a toxic environmental chemical over three human generations, and found that granddaughters whose grandmothers were exposed to the pesticide DDT have higher rates of obesity and earlier first menstrual periods. This may increase the granddaughters’ risk for breast cancer as well as high blood pressure, diabetes and other cardiometabolic diseases.

This research was conducted by PHI’s Child Health and Development Studies where 15,000 pregnant women donated blood samples during and shortly after their pregnancies in the 1960s. These women have been followed for their own health and the health of their daughters and granddaughters for over 60 years.

This work is the first to show such a 3 generation effect for a pesticide in humans and gives new meaning to the idea of “forever” chemicals. Dr. Cohn discussed what this study means for current generations of women and current environmental issues.

This webinar is one in a monthly series sponsored by the Collaborative on Health and the Environment’s EDC Strategies Partnership. 

The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines offers a big dose of hope toward ending the pandemic that has wreaked havoc on the nation. But for many underserved communities—some of the hardest hit by the pandemic—accessing those vaccines remains a challenge all its own.

In this CDC Foundation webinar, featuring Susan Watson, MPH, Director of PHI’s Together Toward Health, presenters discuss their work with community-based organizations (CBOs), as they collaborate on ways to navigate what can be a difficult path toward getting the community vaccinated. Presenters also share strategies to address the concerns and needs of communities, and to overcome the challenges of getting people vaccinated. This webinar is part of a CDC Foundation special series specifically tailored to CBOs and their partners.

Created by PHI’s Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP), Telehealth & Medicaid: A Policy Webinar Series was developed in response to an ever-changing and complex landscape for telehealth policy in Medicaid, specifically in the context of COVID-19.

Listen to the recordings to learn from high-level experts and administrators representing 10 different Medicaid agencies, as well as experts from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission.

Because Medicaid programs are administered at the state level, no two Medicaid programs are alike. Under federal law, Medicaid programs are required to provide a set of essential services, which includes a variety of preventive, inpatient, and outpatient healthcare services but excludes services like dental, optometry, or specialty care, among others. States elect to cover optional benefits above and beyond the MEC guidelines. Similarly, Medicaid programs have discretion in determining the scope of their telehealth coverage policies. While states have increasingly moved to reimburse providers for telehealth services in recent years, telehealth coverage policies can range from narrow to expansive.

As Medicaid programs rapidly expanded their telehealth coverage policies amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, PHI’s Center for Connected Health Policy CCHP developed a policy tracking tool that captures the COVID-related telehealth policy actions for Medicaid programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia (DC). The Medicaid webinar series is an extension of this work and offered providers, administrators, and policy staff in Medicaid agencies the opportunity to share insights and best practices with a diverse audience.

Access the recordings of the webinar series

1. Waivers and State Plan Amendments to Address COVID-19
2. Provider Engagement & Education During the Public Health Emergency
3. Patient Engagement & Education During the Public Health Emergency
4. What’s Next? A Roadmap for Medicaid Telehealth Policy Beyond the Pandemic

Report: Telehealth & Medicaid: A Policy Webinar Series

CCHP also recently completed and released a report summarizing the four webinars hosted during the Winter series. The report dives into the findings gleaned from the presentations and synthesizes key takeaways from each Medicaid agency’s COVID-19 telehealth policy activities.

Download the Report