Vaccine News & Notes — October 2023

Student essay contest winners announced

On Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, we celebrated the 2023 Maurice R. Hilleman Essay Contest winners. Students were prompted to write about the role of preparedness in science, so the virtual event also focused on that theme, including a keynote address by Dr. Marion Gruber, Vice President of Public Health and Regulatory Science at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). Dr. Gruber spent many years thinking about preparedness in her role as the director of the Office of Vaccines Research & Review (OVRR) at the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

In addition to honoring the student winners, including having them read their essays, the event included remarks by Dr. Hilleman’s wife, Lorraine, and shared artwork created by students at a national event this summer. The artwork featured decorated virions that students created as they thought about the role of preparedness in science. The art is also featured on the Vaccine Makers Project’s new “Student Voices” webpage.

Check out these related materials:

• Winning essays and audio recordings of the students reading them
• “Student Voices” webpage with artwork
• Information and short film about Dr. Marion Gruber and her career at the FDA

Also, watch for information about the 2024 essay contest coming soon! As we announced at the celebratory event, the 2024 contest will launch in November 2023.

Colleges and vaccines

Do you have children who have gone to college? Maybe some that are preparing to do so? As our kids head to college, they start to play a bigger role in their health-related decision making, especially if they are living away from home.

However, living on campus (or on a military base) means they may be at increased risk of being exposed to infections that they don’t have immunity against. Unfortunately, vaccine-related policies on college campuses vary widely. Unlike K-12 where the school nurse may have been checking if your child was up to date, the same may not be the case when they head off to campus.

As parents, wittingly or unwittingly, we often rely on vaccine requirements as a way of determining whether our children are protected. But, this is not always the best approach — and the reasons why become remarkably apparent when you think about college vaccine requirements because the reality is that often students are not required to be protected against diseases that they are likely to encounter.

Our research team has been working for several years to understand the situation when it comes to vaccines on campuses, and recently, we partnered with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s PolicyLab to review the literature and make recommendations for campus administrators to consider.

Interested to see what we found?

• Check out the recently published report, “Higher Education Student Vaccination Policies: How Administrators Can Encourage Vaccine Uptake.”
• Watch Dr. Kristen Feemster, VEC’s Director of Research and a co-author on the report, talk about the findings and why they are important.

Questions about COVID-19 vaccine for fall 2023?

If you are wondering about the need for COVID-19 vaccine this fall or have other questions related to the vaccine or SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, check out our updated materials:

• Understanding the Fall 2023 COVID-19 Vaccine Recommendations, video with Dr. Offit
• Fall 2023 Vaccines: Considering Flu, COVID-19 and RSV, video with Dr. Offit
• COVIDVaccineAnswers.org, webpage
• COVID-19 vaccines: What you should know, downloadable Q&A (also in Spanish)