Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,

where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges.

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Hey listeners, it's Lindsay Smith-Rogers.

Today, navigating the changes in vaccine policy at the federal and state levels.

I'm joined by North Saunders, president, and Jennifer Herrick's advocacy director for American

Families for Vaccines. We talk about what's been happening with vaccine policy at the federal

and state levels and how voters play a key role in the process. Just to note that this

episode was recorded prior to a

decision by a federal judge to stay Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s vaccine policy changes. Let's listen.

North Saunders and Jennifer Herrick's thank you so much for joining us on Public Health on Call.

Today, we're talking about families for vaccines and just trying to navigate some of the many changes that have been happening over the last year or so. But to start off, I'd like for you to introduce yourselves and talk a little bit about your work. So let's start with you, North. Great. And thanks so much, Lindsay, for having us on the podcast. We're really excited to talk about this issue. My name's North Saunders. I'm the president of American Families for Vaccines. I'm

based in Portland, Maine. I'm the father to three school-age children, and I'm married to a pediatrician.

At my route, I'm a political advocate working to make sure that our kids are safe in schools.

And Jen?

Thanks so much, Lindsay. I'm Jen Herrick. I am the advocacy director for American Families for Vaccines and also the founder of Louisiana Families for Vaccines. So I am based in Manderville, Louisiana. I'm the mom of three young kids. And I also am trained as a microbiologist and have experience working in global health policy as well. And so North,

would you just give us a basic overview of what families for vaccines does? Yeah. And so what our

real goal is to empower everyday people to stand on the shoulders of experts, pediatricians,

providers, and make sure that their voices, the voices of the pro-vaccine

majority are heard inside state houses, that lawmakers understand there's a pro-vaccine majority

in every single state of the country, and that our organization is here to support by recruiting

...