Boost Oregon Origins Part 2: Where do we want to go?
Now that you know who we are, let's talk about where we want to go as an organization. Join us as Nadine talks about a future where vaccine-preventable diseases are under control, and where those diseases are today. What does the future look like when we achieve this goal, what comes after that, how does the world of vaccine-preventable diseases look now, and what can you do to support this work?
These questions and more are covered in the final part of our two-part series on Boost Oregon. This episode features special guest Taylor Pinsent, the president of Boost Oregon's board of directors. Listen to where we are now and what future we hope to build. Spoiler alert: We can't do it without people like you
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Our Host
Nadine Gartner
Transcript:
Nadine Gartner: (00:01)
Hello, boosting our voices listeners. This is Nadine Gartner, executive Director of Boost Oregon. I'm filling in for Ari o' Donovan and Ryan Hassan while they are on leave. Thanks for joining me. Today's episode is part two of our series about Boost Oregon. If you missed Part one, press pause right now. Go listen to it and come back to us. We'll be here whenever you're ready to listen. In that last episode, we talked about Boost Oregon's origins and current work. Today, we're going to explore Boost Oregon's future and how you can be a part of it.
Nadine Gartner: (00:42)
Now, I am going to let you in on a little secret. When I started Boost Oregon in 2015, I didn't intend for it to last forever. My hope was that we would make ourselves irrelevant. We would be so successful at educating parents about vaccines that they would vaccinate their children on schedule, and we would rarely see vaccine preventable diseases. In Oregon, when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020, I thought maybe this was it. This was the moment where parents and all Oregonians could recognize how disruptive life would be without vaccines and how dangerous and deadly these diseases are. Unfortunately, that was not the take home message from the pandemic. Instead, we've seen an increase in vaccine hesitancy and refusal andal because of the politicalization of the COVID-19 vaccines. Distrust and misinformation surrounding COVID-19 vaccines have also infected people's perspectives of children's routine immunizations and flu vaccines boost. Oregon's work is certainly not done. What happens when people refuse vaccines? I've gotten this question a lot, especially as our daily lives have largely returned to our pre pandemic routines. If I'm vaccinated, people ask me, why does it matter if anyone else's? I know I'm protected. If those folks don't wanna protect themselves, that's their problem. My answer is this, vaccines are not shields. No vaccine is 100% effective against infection boost. Oregon's Board President Taylor consent has excellent insight about this.
Taylor Pinsent: (02:34)
The reality is, is vaccines deserve to have a seat at the table with how people respond to and think about health messages like drinking enough water or eating whole foods, getting their steps in, or getting enough sleep.
Nadine Gartner: (02:46)
As we've seen with covid vaccines, just because you're vaccinated doesn't mean you won't be infected, but it does mean that you will have a milder case of the disease and you'll prevent the worst outcomes like hospitalization and death. The higher the immunization rates within a community, the less likely a horrible disease will wreck havoc in it. There are people too young or too vulnerable like cancer patients to be vaccinated, so it's up to the rest of us to get our vaccines and keep these diseases out of our communities. Failure to do so can be devastating. We don't have to look that far in the past nor far away from home to see those devastating consequences in 2019. Just five years ago, there was a large outbreak of measles in Portland's neighboring city. Vancouver. Washington State recorded 90 measles cases that year, the majority of which occurred in unvaccinated children.
Nadine Gartner: (03:51)
All of that pain and suffering by young kids missed school and work by families, and quarantines from public spaces could have been avoided. If more people had been vaccinated against the measles, the disease would not have spread as far and wide as it did. More recently, we've seen an outbreak of polio in our country. Yeah, polio. That disease that your grandparents may have memories about, most of us have never thought about, much less seen or experienced this horrible, paralyzing disease. But just in 2022, New York State declared a polio emergency. After an unvaccinated man was infected and officials identified polio in New York City's wastewater. The polio vaccination rates where those samples were collected hovered around 60%. Polio was not detected in the wastewater of counties where the immunization rates were closer to community immunity levels, which means that most of the population is vaccinated and provides protection to those who aren't vaccinated.
Nadine Gartner: (05:09)
Boost Oregon will continue its vital work of increasing vaccine knowledge, confidence, and uptake until no one in Oregon suffers from a vaccine preventable disease. Our work takes people away from the fearmongering, away from the toxic misinformation online and addresses their whole selves. We meet people where they are build trusting relationships, provide evidence-based information when they are ready to receive it. To learn more about our work, visit our website@boostoregon.org. Be sure to check out our resources for parents and providers, our motivational interviewing programs, and our shop full of colorful and accessible printed materials. If you want to minimize the harms of vaccine preventable diseases in your community, join Boost Oregon. As a volunteer, you can train to become a peer advocate and educate your friends and family about the importance of vaccines or lead a vaccine awareness campaign in your school or neighborhood. You can be a social media advocate helping to spread accurate and evidence-based information online. You can help at our educational events, fundraisers, and community health fairs. We also have opportunities to join our advisory committees and board of directors. If you have professional and or personal experiences that would help inform and advance Boost Oregon's mission. We want to hear from you. Please visit our website, boost oregon.org and click on the volunteer tab under the About header to tell us about yourself and how you'd like to participate. We spoke to Boost Oregon's board President Taylor Pinsent for her thoughts on where Boost Oregon was heading.
Taylor Pinsent: (06:56)
I am excited to support this organization through twists and turns of navigating misinformation and hidden agendas around vaccines. So navigating a world that leans on social influencers and social media platforms for a source of truth and to gain knowledge is really a wild ride. I really believe that organizations that succeed are organizations that can change during periods of transition and truly listen to the community that they serve. So that could be healthcare providers or patients. I love a good rollercoaster, especially ones equipped with safety features. So Boost is the safety feature of sharing sound science in a track full of bots of misinformation, ,
Nadine Gartner: (07:42)
Just like vaccines themselves, boost Oregon is most effective when the entire community participates. Please join us to minimize the harms of disease in our communities. Follow us on social media. We're on all the platforms. Sign up for our monthly newsletter on our website. I promise we only send one email a month and volunteer with us in a way that feels good to you. If you're able, please donate what you can to our tiny but mighty nonprofit organization. Boost Oregon is funded by community foundations and individuals like you. We refuse donations of any kind from pharmaceutical companies. Visit boost organ.org/donate to make your gift today for the final time. This episode, this is Board President Taylor Pinsent.
Taylor Pinsent: (08:35)
I want listeners to know that Boost Organ's Board of Directors is a group of brilliant, dedicated humans wanting to support wellness in their communities and informed decision making around vaccines. We are a group of parents or caregivers that believe we should all be given an opportunity to live a good quality life. You can support this movement by setting up a reoccurring donation, and that helps support Boost Organs educational programming. You can find the donation page. If you go to our website, you can follow and like our podcasts, social media, watch our videos, share the content with your circles, your loved ones. Check out our Parents' Guide to children's vaccine booklets, which is also on our website, and that's a really, really great way to think about how to have these conversations with your patients. So if you're a healthcare provider, you can also check out our motivational interviewing webinars, which are also posted on our website, which is boost organ.org/webinars. So check that out. We'd love to have you participate.
Nadine Gartner: (09:46)
Thanks for listening and for being a part of the Boosting Our Voices community. We want to hear from you and address topics that matter to you. So send your ideas and inquiries to boosting our voices@gmail.com. Ira and Ryan will be back shortly with all new episodes of boosting our Voices and Neighborhood Doctor. Until then, be well and be kind to one another.