It’s been more than 30 years since the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program first rolled out. Back then, many communities all over the country were dealing with measles outbreaks—in part because funding for vaccine programs had been cut and fewer people were getting vaccinated.
The federal program, which gives free vaccines to kids whose parents or guardians may not be able to afford them, was established by Congress in 1994.
In Austin, Texas, public health officials say remembering the past helps show why staying on schedule with vaccines still matters today.
To learn more about these local efforts, Public Good News interviewed Chris Crookham, program manager of the immunizations unit at Austin Public Health.
Crookham shared more about his program’s community outreach initiatives amidst staffing cuts to his department.
Here’s more of what he said.
[Editor’s note: The contents of this interview have been edited for length and clarity.]
PGN: Can you tell us more about the communities you serve?
Chris Crookham: We are Austin Public Health, a City of Austin department. However, we have an interlocal agreement with the county we’re in to provide public health services for all of Travis County, too.
We serve about 1.2 million people in our area. Approximately 20 percent of our children are uninsured. So that is, you know, the population we’ve tried to serve the most.
Austin can be quite wealthy on the west side and then not very wealthy on the east side. We have a lot of health disparities.
We know that depending on the zip code, you may live 20 years longer than somebody else in an eastern zip code. These health disparities have existed for quite some time, and we are constantly trying to work on that in terms of vaccination rates.
PGN: Has your team been impacted by the recent budget cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services?
C.C.: We’re still receiving free vaccines through the Vaccines for Children program and providing those to our providers and to eligible patients. So, for now, it’s business as usual [for that program].
However, with the loss of our COVID-19 grants at the end of March, we are shrinking quite a bit. We’re losing about 21 people from our team, and that is largely from our education team and our data analysis team.
And then, our mobile vaccination program is going from 15 to seven.
Right now, at an event, we’re able to see approximately 30 to 40 people, but now it’s going to be down to like 15 to 20 people per event.
PGN: How is your team adapting your outreach work with reduced capacity?
C.C.: We in public health really value our relationships, and we work really well with our partners.
They have been understanding, because they know what’s going on and they know it’s not our fault. But that, of course, doesn’t wipe out the demand and the need for vaccines for children and vaccines in general.
So, we are trying to manage their expectations so that we can continue doing as much as we can now, just to try to minimize the disruption and confusion and frustration.
Internally, we are [asking ourselves], how might we be better? How might we be able to partner together with other programs to enhance the education that we provide at the moment, so it’s not siloed?
With our education team shrinking so much, and others as well, we’re looking at partnering with each other to share more information on behalf of other programs.
Just last week, we did a competency fair for other nurses in our department to get them up to speed on providing vaccinations. That way, if we have an outbreak, especially around measles, our department is able to respond quickly despite the reduced capacity within our own team. But also, when we’re doing events with the community, we’re able to maybe call upon other nurses in our department to assist so that we aren’t decreasing our capacity so much.
We are also trying to promote and make people aware of how important the Vaccines for Children program is by reminding them that 30 years ago, there was a measles outbreak and that’s why VFC was created.
March 27 was declared Vaccines for Children Day by the City of Austin. Over the past 30 years, Austin-Travis County providers specifically have received over 3 million doses of vaccines worth over $215 million.
Measles was deemed [eliminated in the U.S.] in the year 2000, so we know that vaccinations work, but only if we get vaccinated.