September 2026

Illinois is gearing up for another respiratory season—and it’s a great time to make sure you’re ready. In this edition of Vax Facts, we’re highlighting timely vaccine updates, resources, and practical information to help providers, educators, and advocates support confident vaccine conversations and keep Illinois communities protected. As always, thank you for the important work you do to make vaccination accessible across our state!

The Immunize Illinois Coalition held its first Board Meeting on August 21, 2026! Much of the meeting focused on adopting bylaws and policies, setting a meeting schedule, and discussing immediate priorities of the Coalition which include recruiting and hiring an Executive Director. The next meeting will be held in November 2026.

Thank you to everyone who attended the first open meeting of the Immunize Illinois Coalition on September 2, 2026. The meeting was in-person, with a virtual option, and was held in conjunction with Illinois Public Health Association’s 85^th Annual Public Health Workforce Conference. Melissa Graven, Coalition Manager, provided updates on the latest activities of the coalition and upcoming events. Melissa also shared some of the analysis from the recent Vaccine Needs Survey. Input from the survey continues to be evaluated and will be shared. Look for a webinar on the Vaccine Needs Survey soon! The slide deck from the meeting will be sent to the Immunize Illinois Coalition email list.

SAVE THE DATE! The American Lung Association is launching a new lung health initiative in partnership with Illinois Department of Public Health focused on improving access to lung health education, resources, and vaccinations for residents living in multi-unit housing communities.  

As part of this initiative, the Lung Association is looking to connect with local health partners who may be interested in providing onsite vaccination clinics for residents. Through this initiative, we can also provide support to help cover vaccine costs for uninsured residents, helping make these clinics more accessible to the communities they serve.  If you are interested, please join us for an upcoming webinar on September 29, 2026, at 12:00 PM CT. Registration details to come soon! You can also email hannah.kochen@lung.org if you are interested in discussing potential collaboration opportunities.

Vaccinate the Heartland 2026. This is the fourth year the Midwest Immunization Consortium (MIC) celebrates the value of vaccination. The Immunize Illinois Coalition is proud to be a partner of the MIC with other state coalitions in the Midwest region. Please join September 30, 2026, at 12:00 PM CT to share community with fellow vaccine advocates. Register: here. Hope to see you there!

SAVE THE DATE! Building Vaccine Confidence. Immunize Illinois Coalition will host Oksana Kucher, PharmD, BCCP from GSK Vaccines, Medical Science Liaison to learn practical strategies to address vaccine questions, build trust, and have confident, meaningful conversations with patients, families, and communities. Please join us October 8, 2026, at 12:00 PM Registration details to come soon!

Don't Lose Ground: Measles Outbreaks, Then and Now. Join Voices for Vaccines and youth vaccine advocate Raasti Kayani, winner of a National Gold Medal in Journalism by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, for a screening of her mini-documentary, "Don't Lose Ground," about the 2025 West Texas measles outbreak. We'll be joined by Dr. Paul Offit and Dr. Andrea Kesack, both interviewed for Raasti's article, "The Return of Measles and the Professionals Trying to Stop the Spread," for a Q&A about the recent measles outbreaks in the United States. Join Wednesday, October 7 at 7:00 PM CT. Register here.

From Unvaccinated to Immunologist: Using Story to Build Trust in Vaccine Conversations from North Dakota State University Immunization Research and Education. In this webinar, Dr. Elisabeth Marnik will draw from her own journey from being unvaccinated to becoming an immunologist to explore how personal experiences shape vaccine decision-making and influence responses to scientific information. Discover how storytelling can build trust, make science more memorable, and support more effective vaccine conversations. October 14, 2026, from 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CT. Register here.

Vax Advocate Training. Are you interested in using your voice to make your family, school, neighborhood, or community healthier? Voices for Vaccines is building a community of Vaccine Advocates. Attend monthly training sessions for actionable tools and best practices in vaccine advocacy

• Topics include the 4-A method, storytelling for social change, pro-vaccine messaging and media, resilience for advocates, and leadership 
• Access toolkits to engage communities in vaccine advocacy.
• Meet like-minded people from other communities advocating for immunization

If you’re interested in learning more, fill out the form as “volunteer” here.

New Cost Estimate Tool to Aid U.S. Measles Outbreak Response from John’s Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health International Vaccine Access Center. With more than 3,000 measles cases confirmed across the United States in 2026, public health efforts have focused on slowing disease transmission and limiting the size of ongoing outbreaks. But recent costing data shows that from an economic perspective, it is much more impactful to prevent an outbreak from occurring in the first place. A new open-access tool allows public health officials to estimate how much these outbreaks may cost in their states. Find the Measles Outbreak Estimator here.

Popular One Page “Influenza Vaccine Products for the 2026–2027 Influenza Season” released by immunize.org. The popular one-page reference document lists all available products (including Moderna’s mRNA vaccine), presentations, ages, and billing codes. The reference document can be found here.

"VaxImpact Website Relaunch and Social Media Toolkit. The updated VaxImpactMap.org provides state-level projections showing how changes in childhood vaccination coverage could impact disease burden, hospitalizations, healthcare costs, and other outcomes. Developed by researchers at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, VaxImpact provides state-level projections to help policymakers, public health professionals, researchers, advocates, and communities better understand how vaccination trends may affect health outcomes. The platform allows users to explore potential impacts across all 50 states and examine how different vaccination scenarios could affect their communities. on when evaluating vaccination trends and public health outcomes.

Shaping Smiles, Preventing Cancer, The Oral Health Professionals Guide to HPV Vaccinations.

The American Cancer Society (ACS), ACS National HPV Vaccination Roundtable, Crossroads Utah AHEC, and the National Network for Oral Health Access are excited to announce a new on-demand HPV education course for oral health professionals to increase knowledge and uptake of HPV vaccination to prevent against HPV-related oropharyngeal cancers. Oral health professionals play a critical role in combatting growing rates of human papillomavirus (HPV)–positive oropharyngeal cancers and are a trusted source for HPV vaccination education.   

The on-demand course will include 4 modules including the following topics:  

• Module 1: HPV 101: Everything You Need to Know 
• Module 2: Guide to Oral Screenings and HPV-Related Malignancies 
• Module 3: Screening, Treatment and Survivorship of HPV-Related Oropharyngeal Cancer 
• Module 4: Best Practices from the Field: Dental Professionals Increasing HPV

Participants will be able to receive up to four hours of ADA-CERP continuing education which will be provided by the National Network for Oral Health Access. To receive continuing education, participants need to complete the course(s) and post-series survey. Complete registration here.

Recording and slides are available for “Ready for Respiratory Season? Pediatric Vaccine Updates for 2026-2027” from North Dakota State University Center for Immunization Research and Education held on September 15, 2026.

Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) Issued Respiratory Season Guidelines and COVID-19 Vaccine Standing Order. IDPH has issued respiratory virus season guidelines, including guidelines for influenza, COVID-19, and RSV immunizations for the 2026-2027 season. IDPH Director Dr. Sameer Vohra has also issued a standing order for administration of the 2026-2027 COVID-19 vaccine to reduce barriers to accessing the COVID-19 vaccine. More information can be found in Dr. Vohra’s Dear Colleague letter issued on September 10, 2026.

People who say they’ll get vaccinated against COVID and flu often don’t. Why not? from CIDRAP. Research published this week in Vaccine found that 39% of participants who said they were willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine during the 2025-26 respiratory virus season remained unvaccinated by the end of the season. That included 66% of people who said they would probably get the vaccine and 24% who said they would definitely get the vaccine. Among participants who planned to get a flu vaccine, 16% remained unvaccinated by March 2026.  Read the article here.

18-year old dies in Pennsylvania’s fourth measles-associated death from PBS. The latest death involved an 18-year-old resident of Mifflin County, in the center of the state, the county coroner's office said in a Facebook post. The cause was acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, a rare and severe neurological complication of measles.

Voices for Vaccines developed an on-line learning adventure called The Vaccine Quest?  

It is normal to have questions about vaccines, and it's normal to want to answer questions about vaccines. This online quest will help you do both. Embark on The Vaccine Quest and learn everything you need to know about vaccines. This course is free, fun, and made for people from all walks of life. It is perfect to share on websites, social media posts, or with co-workers, colleagues, and friends!

Protection is powerful!

Thank you for helping Illinois stay immunized!