and also we'll start with one question and a follow-up.
If we have more time, we'll come back around to the top.
And we'll begin our questions today with Sarah Volbanheim
from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Sarah?
Hi, thanks for taking the time.
My first question is, how is the state ensuring access
to COVID-19 vaccines for uninsured adults now
that the federal bridge access program has ended?
Yeah, so while you write the bridge access program
through the CDC has ended,
the CDC has also gone ahead and made COVID-19 vaccines available to the states.
Wisconsin is expected to receive about 7,000 doses
that will be available through our network of about 120 providers
throughout the state, and those are adults who are under-insured for vaccines.
Another question, Sarah?
Yeah.
How do you all feel about that level of supply for uninsured adults
given, you know, that I think the uninsured population has estimated
to be around 300,000?
It's certainly, you know, I think first off we're glad that we're able to supply
the vaccine in the first place, but as you noted,
you know, the number is 7,000 doses.
But that being said, it does, it more than double the number of individuals
who received a dose of COVID-19 through the bridge access program here in Wisconsin,
but, you know, it certainly doesn't cover the number of uninsured adults in Wisconsin.
So we do encourage, you know, folks to make a plan to get vaccinated sooner rather than later.
Thank you, Sarah.
Now to Sean Kirkby from Wisconsin Health News. Sean?
Thanks for holding this.
I was wondering, what is kind of the forecast for respiratory season this year?
This would be the third year, fourth year with COVID and all these other viruses
circulating, but fewer protections in place.
Can you elaborate when you're expecting to see?
Yes, I could take that one, Sean.
It's a very good question.
CDC has recently come out with a forecast for the respiratory season,
which is mainly specified towards influenza.
And they're thinking that this coming year, the 2024, 2025 respiratory season
will be a milder season than it was this past year.
This past year, they described our respiratory season as being moderate to severe.
In Wisconsin, we had approximately 4,000 or more influence associated hospitalizations.
And this coming year, they're thinking that it's going to be a better year.
It's going to be a more of a mild year.
That's based on many different aspects as well, one being that the number of vaccinations
that they're projecting to get when Wisconsin citizens is correct.
If we have more people being vaccinated, it could be even a less severe year.
If less people get vaccinated, it could be more severe.
We're always looking at any kind of mutations, both in the COVID virus
and also with the influenza virus, which could skew the prior investigations
and as much as making it either worse or better.
So that's what they're saying right now.
It's again really hard to pinpoint 100%, but that's the theory that's going on
that the CDC has shared with the states.
And another question, Sean?
Yeah, thank you.
Dr. Shower, you had mentioned that the 7,000 vaccines are kind of double the number
that folks received through the bridge program.
So does that mean that there was 3,000 Pfizer and Wisconsin needs to receive vaccines
for the bridge program?
And what is kind of like the time period for when they receive those?
Is that during a one-year period or is that in total throughout the entire program?
Yeah, so that was for over the entire length of the bridge access program,
which I believe was about a year.
And so really was the uptake of the 2324 COVID-19 vaccine.
Thank you, Sean.
Now to Hope Kerwin from Wisconsin Public Radio.
Hope?
Yeah, last last fall was the first time that the RSV vaccine was available,
I believe.
And so I'm just kind of curious, like, you know, in its second year now,
if there is different messaging or, you know, if you learn anything from the first year of how to kind of message to the,
you know, populations that should be getting the RSV vaccine.
Yeah.
So in terms of messaging, I mean, the recommendations have changed slightly.
What they are for this year is that individuals 75 and older should receive a dose.
And this is a, at this point, it's a, you know, once in a lifetime dose,
we don't have recommendations for additional doses. So if individuals received it last year, they don't need it this year.
The change is really for those 60 to 74 years of age with severe or conditions,
which would lend themselves to perhaps having a more severe case of RSV that they are recommended to receive it as well.
And so, you know, with, I think we're hoping additional availability and awareness about RSV and the importance of it.
In the respiratory season, making sure that our folks are aware of the need for the vaccine.
On the other end of the spectrum, we also have the recommendation for pregnant individuals to receive RSV vaccine towards the tail end of their pregnancy to provide protection for their infants.
And so that we're continuing to ensure that we're working with the providers and those who work with pregnant individuals to make sure that they know to avail themselves in getting this to provide that protection.
It's typically given between weeks 32 and 36 weeks and six days gestation.
So it's a little bit of a tight timeframe at that end of the pregnancy, but it's such a critical piece to helping provide protection for those infants.
If the infant, if the individual doesn't get the RSV vaccine, there is the added possibility of the infant receiving their SIVA map or the long at lasting monoclonal antibody that can be given, you know, right as soon as the baby is born or, you know, in the first few weeks
and months of life to provide protection against RSV.
So I think we're really fortunate to have sort of a two-pronged approach to preventing RSV. We anticipate the nurse SIVA map or the Bayfortis is the trade name for the infants, but that will be in better supply this year, and that there will be more knowledge and folks availing themselves of the RSV vaccine as well.
And another question help.
I think just in general, you know, the state has seen a decline in vaccination rates and kind of struggled to get back to a previous high there.
And I'm just curious if, you know, there is a different approach to encouraging vaccinations this year if, you know, there is new efforts to try to reach out to those people who are choosing not to get their annual flu shot.
Yeah, and, you know, I think to start off with, you know, last year we saw about 35% of Wisconsinites received an influenza vaccine, which is pretty low.
I mean, that's, you know, only, you know, one in three individuals was protected.
And similarly with COVID, you know, 19 vaccine, the rate of uptake of the 2324 was, I think, about 19%. So we certainly have a long ways to go in making sure that we are well protected community.
I think it's important that folks recognize and continue to remember that COVID-19 and influenza are serious diseases.
While, you know, they can range in and how much they hit someone, whether it's a couple of really crummy days, or it ends up being with very severe complications or hospitalization or possibly death.
We don't know who or how, you know, these diseases will affect an individual. And so it's really important to make sure that we're all protected.
When we look at for COVID-19 of teens or children and teens who were hospitalized in the last year and this is nationwide data, that about 50% of them did not have any underlying illness.
So they ended up in the hospital, but it wasn't just necessarily the end of kids that had high risk conditions. Some kids seemed perfectly healthy.
And so you never know who and that's the same thing that we see within fluenza. You can't predict who will have a milder and who will have a more severe case of these diseases.
And wanting just making sure that people remember that these are important diseases to make a plan for for protecting themselves, their family and their community.
Thank you. Now to WISN TV in Milwaukee, WISN.
And we'll start back at the top then with Sarah Wolfenheim. Sarah, do you have another question?
Yeah, I guess going back to the vaccines for adults program. How is it that the state is determining how to allocate those 7,000 expected doses among the different providers and health departments?
Yeah. So we are using our vaccines for adult provider network, which has been in place for a number of years and we're continuing to to slowly grow and add in and such that we've got about 120 sites now at this point.
And so those providers will all have opportunities to order vaccine. We'll make sure everybody in the network has some vaccine. And as they use it, they'll order more until that 7,000 doses is gone.
And so we also will be providing influenza vaccine for an underinsured adults through this same network. And so ensuring that every provider in that network has some vaccine.
And do you have a number for how much the Milwaukee city health department is expected to get through that?
I don't know what they plan to order and have plans to administer, unfortunately. Thanks.
I will say we have not yet opened the COVID-19 vaccine piece has just is more recent. And so we are currently working to get that ordering and that implementation in place for the providers.
In the very near future providers will have that opportunity to go ahead and order and vaccine will start to be shipped.
On the other hand, our vaccines for children network, which serves on and underinsured children, as well as those on Medicaid.
Unless Canadian American Indian kids, that network, the vaccine has started to come and is arriving in providers offices. And vaccine continues to flow into providers offices, both on the public and the private side in the coming weeks and months.
So it's not just a once and done, they continue to order and as they use it up and get more into their offices.
Okay. Do you have an estimated timeline for when providers can expect to receive those adult doses through the Vaccines for Adults program?
We're working on getting that ordering out. It does. We typically need to give it about two weeks from the time we place the order with CDC. Those doses are not shipped from the state. They're shipped from manufacturers are from the CDC.
And so there's a little bit of time, but, you know, folks can go ahead and call providers, see about some maybe making appointments now, or they may say you need to call back in a week or two, but it should be soon flu season.
It's important to get your, your, your doses soon. And we typically say you want to get those done by the end of October. So it's just a little bit of time to make sure that the network has the doses and folks can get that.
Those vaccines. Thank you.
Thank you, Sarah. Now to Sean Kirkby from Wisconsin health news. Sean, do you have another question?
Yeah, thank you.
The press release mentioned that there is new respiratory data web pages summarizing overall respiratory activity in the state. Can you talk a little bit about why you're releasing these web pages now?
And why focus on kind of looking at respiratory activity overall versus the prior dashboards that were just focused on, you know, COVID-19 flu and RSV.
I can start off with that one, Sean. The reason we're releasing it now, obviously, is we're getting into a brand new season. As matter of fact, this week starts the season of the 2024 2025 respiratory season and you'll see that on our weekly reports.
So we thought it was a good time to announce our dashboard, our enhancements to the dashboard. And we really wanted people to think about COVID, but also realize that there's things other than COVID flu and RSV going out.
We sort of have our dashboard that has other viruses like human metadnuma virus, which is a very serious virus that comes up around April.
Add no viruses, which could cause many different problems. Seasonal coronaviruses. We really wanted to get that across the board that it's not only the big three, even though the big three are probably the most important, but we want to be sure that people are aware of what's going on in the state.
And try to get as much information as they possibly can by age groups to try to answer people's questions as much as possible. And we'll be looking for some feedback from people towards the end of the season to see if we did a good job, how we can make it any better this
the following year. But that's the reason why we put together this dashboard and app that announced this particular point.
Another question, Sean.
I'm good. Thank you.
Thank you. Now hope Kerwin from Wisconsin public radio hope another question.
I have no further questions. Thanks.
Okay. I'll go back to Sarah to see if she has any additional questions.
Sarah Wopenhine.
I think that's everything I had as well.
Okay. Well, thank you. And thank you all for participating in today's media availability, especially to Tom Hout and Dr. Shower.
Any information or if you have any follow up questions, you certainly can send those to DHS media.
More information is available on the DHS website. Thank you so much and have a good afternoon.
Thanks.
I'll be with you.
Thank you.