Community Health Conversation: Charmaine Branchaud's Success in Boosting Student Vaccination Rates

Minnesota Native News

Hosts Leah Lemm (Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe) and Dr. Antony Stately Ph.D. (Ojibwe/Oneida) lead insightful discussions about the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare in Indian Country. They discuss the valuable lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic and explore how Native communities are responding and adapting beyond COVID-19.

Today we celebrate the success of Charmaine Branchaud, a Nurse for the Red Lake school district, whose work raised the vaccination rate of her students. She was recently honored as a 2023 Immunization Champion by the Association of Immunization Managers (AIM) and Minnesota Department of Health (MDH).

We talk to her about what went into the success and reflect on her experiences as a healthcare worker during the pandemic. We also catch up on where we are in the covid pandemic as we head toward back to school and the end of summer.

There’s also news of an updated COVID booster on the horizon.

The CDC and FDA are expected to release updated boosters in late September or early October. The new booster will target that XBB strain of COVID. Back in June the FDA vaccine advisory committee recommended that the upcoming update focus on that XBB strain. They recommend that the new booster ought to be “Mono valent” meaning that it will only be composed of medicine to combat that most recent strain. As opposed to the bivalent booster we had last year which was Omicron and the original strain. They say it should be as effective as a bivalent and a bivalent booster is not applicable right now.

In the Duluth Area, the American Indian Community Housing Organization (AICHO) is hosting a COVID vaccine clinic on Wednesday August 30th from 3:30 to 6pm.

Dr. Stately would also like to remind listeners that Medicaid certifications were not required to be renewed during the pandemic; this changed with the ending of the public health emergency. Folks with Medicaid coverage are now required to be recertified within the next month. Watch your mail for a notice from your Medicaid provider or visit NACC or another community health center and talk with a patient advocate or a MNSure navigator to complete recertification to keep your coverage.

Community Health Conversations is made possible with the support of the Minnesota Department of Health. To find information about COVID vaccines and boosters, please visit MN.gov/COVID19.