BPHC Bulletin: Upcoming COVID-19 Survey Change and Family Vaccination Days

A huge THANK YOU to those who have already responded to our request for your health center’s plans for family vaccination clinics. As a reminder, the deadline for your response is 11:59 p.m. your local time TODAY (Friday, December 10).

Survey Change on Friday, December 17

In the Health Center COVID-19 Survey you’ll receive next week, we will ask you to let us know if you hosted family vaccination clinics and, if so, how many. The change (in bold) will be made in existing questions 12 and 12a:

• Did your health center utilize mobile vans or host pop-up, school-based, and/or family vaccination clinics to enhance access to COVID-19 vaccination sites in the last two weeks?
• [If you answer Yes to the previous question] How many mobile van, pop-up, school-based, and/or family vaccination clinics did you host in the last two weeks for COVID-19 vaccinations?

Please note BPHC’s definition of a family vaccination clinic: Family vaccination clinics are intended for the whole family—offering primary vaccinations and booster shots, and the pediatric vaccine for kids ages 5-11. Family vaccination clinics include events hosted on-site and off-site (e.g., mobile van, pop-up, or school-based clinics).

We will update the Survey User Guide by noon on Friday, December 17.

White House Announcement: Family Vaccination Days

President Biden recently announced new actions to combat COVID-19. These actions included encouraging health centers to hold Family Vaccination Days.

Resources to Support Your Efforts

• HHS’ Family Vaccination Site Playbook is now posted on WeCanDoThis.hhs.gov, along with other materials to support your efforts to educate your community about primary and booster vaccination.
• The U.S. Surgeon General’s Community Toolkit for Addressing Health Misinformation can help to ensure that people across the country have access to science-based public health guidance as the country continues to confront the pandemic.

To receive individualized support on how to set up a family vaccination clinic from the Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program team, please submit inquiries via the BPHC Contact Form. The team is available to help answer your questions. 

Share Your Story! Please share stories profiling the ways your health center is holding Family Vaccination Days. We encourage you to use the #familyvax hashtag to promote your events and efforts on social media. You can also send us your stories: Send your story to our Health Center Stories inbox. If sharing a photo, please include a high-resolution image along with the names of everyone in the picture and make sure each person has signed a HRSA Photo Release Form. You may see your story featured in our newsletter, on a webcast, or via HRSA social media.  Thank you for your ongoing efforts to advance vaccination against COVID-19! Examples of Family Vaccination Efforts Many health centers have already begun advancing family vaccination efforts. For example: Cherry Health (Grand Rapids, MI) hosted weekly evening vaccine events for adolescents and families. The health center sent text messages to patients ages 12 to 16 encouraging them to attend and invited parents to get their vaccine at the same time. See the Health Centered on COVID-19 section of the October 26 Digest to read more. Esperanza Health Centers (Chicago) has been the top pediatric COVID-19 vaccine provider in Chicago. And through their familiarity with local languages and culture, they have also made it easier for the whole family to get access to immunizations, starting with grandparents last winter. See the Health Centered on COVID-19 section of the November 30 Digest to learn more.