Ann Walker, Supervising Nurse and Immunization Coordinator with Kern County Public Health, stopped by to talk about back-to-school vaccinations.
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00:00 6 44 now welcome back and while some classes are already underway in a
00:04 couple of school districts around Kern County, a majority of them begin next
00:08 week and joining us in studio be this morning and Walker with current county
00:12 public health talk more about back to school vaccinations and what to do.
00:16 Don't panic if you don't have them all yet and thanks for coming in this
00:21 morning. Appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Uh how prevalent is the
00:26 concern about kids not having the proper vaccinations to enter the grade
00:30 level they're about to go into? Well, primarily vaccines are needed to go
00:34 into school for kindergarten age students and for students going into
00:38 seventh grade. And so we do see quite a number of students each year that are
00:44 not at this time of the year who are not ready and have not had those
00:48 vaccinations. And so we're really trying to encourage parents, you know,
00:53 plan ahead. Usually every year you want to plan in the spring, look at your
00:57 records. If your kids are entering kindergarten, if they're going into
01:00 seventh grade, that's when it's the time to plan and to start getting those
01:03 vaccinations. Okay, now at this part though, we're talking about
01:06 potentially hundreds of kids that don't have their vaccinations. So what are
01:10 some of the most common ones they don't have or not? Not up to date on their
01:15 kids going into seventh grade or not up to date on their T. Dap. This is the
01:19 tetanus diphtheria and pertussis vaccine. And they're also not, uh,
01:23 they're going into kindergarten. They need their booster vaccinations for the
01:26 measles, mumps, rubella, the chicken pox vaccine, um, and additional
01:31 boosters for polio and for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. Now there are
01:35 probably some people at home right now that are thinking, oh, I didn't know
01:38 about this. I didn't have this or that. Someone comes down and they don't have,
01:42 for example, their vaccination history card with them. Can they still get it?
01:46 Yes, they can still get the vaccinations. What we'll do is we'll
01:49 look them up first in our immunization registry. It's a statewide registry. And
01:53 so if their providers in the past were using that system, we'll be able to
01:57 find some type of record on them and be able to see where they are and then get
02:01 them the proper vaccines that they need today. Now you're, I find it funny that
02:05 you say you should be doing this in the spring, but here we are where they're
02:09 coming up to monday being the day. Now, is there still time this week if their
02:14 child is headed back to school on monday? Yes. You know, most of our
02:17 appointments were primarily appointment based this year. So most of our
02:20 appointments are booked for today and tomorrow. However, we do have a clinic
02:24 on saturday. We will be, we will be taking walk ins. We're working with at
02:28 Venice Health, their Children's immunization program. And so they'll be
02:31 there taking walking, walking patients. So we do have time from saturday from
02:36 about 10 10 30 to about 12 o'clock in the afternoon. We'll be taking um
02:41 patients coming at the public health department. So it's at the public
02:44 health. Yes, come down there on saturday. Don't go to Adventist Health.
02:47 Don't go to Adventist Health is at the public health department. Now you show
02:51 up at school on monday and you don't have those shots that are necessary. Are
02:55 kids supposed to be in class then or do they have to sit out? No, if they don't
02:58 have the necessary shots, the school staff should be checking and they
03:01 should be sitting out until they get the necessary vaccinations to be in
03:04 school. Okay. And talk about maybe if you real good and I know we're running
03:08 out of time, but just the concern that's still out there. Do you still
03:11 find that some parents are concerned either about the types of vaccinations
03:15 and boosters like you just mentioned coming out of covid and all the
03:18 vaccinations with all of that? Um yes, we still see a lot of vaccine concern,
03:22 vaccine hesitancy. And so um you know, we want to let people know these
03:26 vaccines are safe. They've been given for decades and so you know, we don't
03:31 see the diseases that they protect us against the measles, mumps, things like
03:37 that. And so we need to continue our high levels and our high vaccination
03:41 rates in order not to see those diseases again. If we stop vaccinating,
03:46 they will come back quickly, very quickly. And real quick, who's more
03:52 nervous when they come in to get those, those boosters? Is it the parents or
03:56 the child? It's a mix. Whose hand do you have to hold? It's mom, isn't it?
04:00 Sometimes we have to and if dad's there, we have to hold hands. Yeah.
04:05 All right, very good. And welcome. Thanks for coming in this morning and
04:08 good luck this saturday. All right. Thank you so much. Public health from
04:10 10 32 1 to 1. Yeah, very good.