STChealth to Host Vaccine Documentary’s Phoenix Premiere

“This documentary is honest scientific information about all vaccines and how crucial they are to community health.”

– RADM (ret) Pamela Schweitzer, Pharm.D. Former Assistant Surgeon General 2021

“Vaccination from the Misinformation Virus” will help parents and community leaders understand how important and safe vaccines are, how crucial they are to community health and how they save millions of lives annually.   The project revolves around a one-hour documentary that will be broadcast on Monday, July 26 at 9 p.m. on  KAET Channel 8 Arizona PBS. The program is being made available to all PBS stations nationally along with short elements for use by health care professionals and on social media. An invite-only premiere and screening of the documentary will be held on Wednesday, July 21 at University of Arizona’s Virginia G. Piper Auditorium in downtown Phoenix. The July 21 premiere will begin with a cocktail reception at 5:30 p.m followed by a screening of the documentary at 6 p.m.

“Our lifespan for most of human history is short.  We had 40 years if we were lucky and 40% to 45% of kids, depending on the era of history, died before the age of 5.  So the idea that we get these long lives … we can expect to see our children grow up. This is a gift of science.”           

– Bette Korber, PhD Computational Biologist and Biophysicist, Los Alamos National Laboratory

“We started this program in 2017, after a conversation with infectious disease pediatrician, Dr. Walter Dehority and in conjunction with the Immunization Practitioners Advisory Committee so we’ve been in research over three years before we started filming,” explains producer/director Chris Schueler.  “We started long before the pandemic and thus address all vaccines explaining the history and science while dispelling various myths.”  According to Brian Southwell, PhD a health communications professor at Duke and UNC Chapel Hill, “We have motivations for the information that we seek. We can be blind to information that really is at odds with what we thought was the way that the world worked.”

PREMIERE + SCREENING INFORMATION: 

Wednesday, July 21st at Virginia G. Piper Auditorium,

600 E. Van Buren Street, Phoenix AZ 85004

• Cocktail Reception + Hor D’oeuvres @ 5:30 p.m.
• Documentary Screening @ 6:00 p.m.

BROADCASTING INFORMATION:

Monday, July 26th at 9 p.m. on KAET Channel 8 Arizona PBS

ABOUT THE DOCUMENTARY:

“The medicine that has saved more lives than anything else is vaccines. It’s really a remarkable contribution to human health.”

– John D. Grabenstein, RPh, PhD

As COVID-19 spread worldwide, Americans became increasingly polarized as to its reach, scope and effects. As a result, vaccinations for this and other diseases have become flash-points in communities across the country.  However, former Assistant US Surgeon General, Pamela Schweitzer is encouraged, “Our hopes to slow COVID-19 and get back to some kind of ‘normal’ hinges on peoples’ understanding of and willingness to become vaccinated. And that understanding and willingness will carry over to other vaccines.” According to Dr. Walter Dohority, “The pandemic has really offered us an opportunity to educate and engage citizens about all vaccines and viruses.”

The difficulty with people understanding the importance of vaccination may have to do with how successful vaccines have been.  “I don’t know anybody who’s ever had measles.  I’ve never seen mumps.  I’ve never seen rubella.  Now my children, they don’t even know what chickenpox is,” explains the Director of Tricore Labs infectious diseases, Karissa Culbreath, PhD. “That’s the challenge of the vaccine arguments because now disease doesn’t happen and we have to remind people who’ve never seen the disease that the disease exists.”

The program includes infectious disease experts, epidemiologists, pharmacists, physicians, and various academics with expertise in misinformation as well as health disparities.  “We have to understand that folks may be hesitant to get vaccinated for reasons we may not consider,” says Schueler.  “Our experts explain how all kinds of issues throughout the country contribute to extremely legitimate concerns for many disenfranchised groups.”   “If you think about the healthcare system as a system that is part of a larger structure; part of an educational system, part of a law enforcement system, part of a social services system. Then we understand why there could be hesitancy.  We understand why there could be a lack of trust,” explains Sabrina Cherry, PhD. “People sometimes think of historical trauma as the retelling of bad stories that happened a long time ago, but that’s not it.  It is the trauma that occurred that continues to occur on a daily basis.”

The program also addresses the future of vaccines. “The good news is that two technologies that were in development have now been proven to be really effective,” explains John Grabenstein, RPh PhD of the Immunization Action Coalition.  “Now scientists can go back into the labs and test them against viruses and bacteria where there is no vaccine right now.”

The following project participants are available for interviews:

Chris Schueler, Producer/Director 

chris@christopherproductions.org  Cell: 505-450-999

Pamela Schweitzer, Pharm.D.  

Former Assistant U.S. Surgeon General

pamela.schweitzer926@gmail.com

Karissa Culbreath, PhD  

Director of Infectious Diseases, TriCore Reference Laboratories

Beth Bailey, Development & Communications

Elizabeth.Bailey@tricore.org  Desk: 505.938.8393 | Mobile: 917.449.9518

Walter Dehority, M.D., MSc. 

Department of Pediatrics, Division of Infectious Diseases

University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center

WDehority@salud.unm.edu      505-272-5535

Sara Del Valle, Phd,

Mathematical Epidemiologist,  Los Alamos National Laboratory

Laura Mullane    Media & Public Affairs

mullane@lanl.gov  505.412.7733 call/text

Denise Gonzales, MD  

Critical and pulmonary care physician.

Amanda Schoenberg | Communication Manager – Presbyterian Healthcare Services
aschoenbe@phs.org  Cell: 831.332.5785

John D. Grabenstein, RPh, PhD, 

Immunization Action Coalition

john.grabenstein@immunize.org    410-829-6014

Melvina McCabe, MD 

Professor Emeritus of Family Medicine   Univ of New Mexico School of Medicine.

mmccabe@mccabecpa.com

Matthew Probst, PA-C

Medical Director,  El Centro Family Health

matthew.probst@ecfh.org     505-429-7927

Brian Southwell, PhD

Director, Science in the Public Sphere Program

Center for Communication Science   RTI Internationalnews@rti.org

About STChealth

STChealth’s mission is to eradicate vaccine preventable disease and empower individuals through our innovative technology and service solutions. We deliver on our mission through passion and innovation, through teamwork and inclusion, through superior client service and products, and a relentless pursuit of the next ”big idea”​ that will advance immunization intelligence. Starting with developing the first Immunization Information System (IIS) and over 35 years of experience in the immunization ecosystem, STChealth is positioned today to support more than 1/3 of COVID-19 vaccinations reported in the U.S. through our network of over 70,000 Providers and Pharmacy Partners. More information can be found at www.STChealth.com