There is growing concern among some public health officials around the country that vaccine misinformation is growing.
On Wednesday, a handful of those health officers, including Santa Clara County's Dr. Sara Cody, came together to urge everyone to continue to follow the science.
The Santa Clara County Public Health Department developed many innovative programs during the pandemic, including mobile vaccination units that go into neighborhoods. Now, the county also shares concerns with other health agencies nationwide about the future of vaccine programs under a Donald Trump administration, especially amid GOP attacks on former medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s Health and Human Services director nominee, offered reassurance in an NBC interview.
"If vaccines are working for somebody, I’m not going to take them away," he said.
Kennedy's statement aside, worries remain over the Trump administration's attitude and, as health officials put it, a troubling increase in vaccine disinformation.
"We faced a lot of headwinds during the pandemic, but we met them and we were able to protect our community," Cody said. "I would say we were able to build infrastructure and trust during the pandemic that's a bit more, at least locally, I would say is more robust than it was prior to the pandemic."
Other health officers also said there is more data now to educate the public and a new administration.
"It’s that kind of hyper local engagement that will help us sort of go against any sort of misinformation, disinformation that’s out there, especially as social media is fueling a whole swath of information that people take as fact that often times can be fiction," Dr. Raynard Washington from North Carolina said.
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Cody agreed.
"We need to understand what people are hearing, what people are making of the information that they have and what would be helpful, and I think our strategies are changing away from telling and more to listening and understanding," she said.
The health officers said the focus can’t just be on administration policies and that it’s also on Congress to make public health and the necessary funding a priority.
