Wyoming Health Dept Says Trump Not The Reason $8.4 Million For Vax Ads Ending

The Wyoming Department of Health expects the last of a series of federal grants for pro-vaccine advertising to run out later this year – but says that’s not because of the new presidential administration’s more vaccine-skeptical approach.

It's because that money was tied to a finite stream of pandemic and recovery-related federal grants and contracts, Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) spokeswoman Kim Deti told Cowboy State Daily in an email on Monday. 

She said the department believes it has spent about $8.4 million in federal money on pro-vaccine advertising since 2021.

That includes a $1,990,888 COVID-19 vaccine promotion running from 2021, to August 2023; a $4,680,783 campaign for other kinds of vaccines during that same period and a $1,745,200 advertising campaign for non-COVID vaccines “we estimate spending” from August 2023 to the present, Deti wrote.

Those come from a series of federal grant programs, the last of which the department believes will end later this year, “as expected,” she added. “There has been no change in the grant funding since the new presidential administration came into place.”

Deti said she did not have a figure on hand for what the department expects to spend as that last contract is completed in the coming months.

The department hasn’t used state funds for vaccine advertising since well before 2020, and that older advertising was for flu vaccines and never consistent, said Deti.

“We recognize the importance of vaccines to personal and public health,” she said. “We continue to encourage people to stay up to date with vaccine recommendations.” 

The New Kennedy 

President Donald Trump selected, and the U.S. Senate on Feb. 13 confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary.

Kennedy was a critic of the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021 and afterwards.

President Joe Biden’s administration pressured social media companies during that time to de-platform the “disinformation dozen,” a group of doctors and other activists opposing COVID-19 vaccines.

Kennedy was on that list.

Kennedy said during his Senate confirmation hearing that he’s not anti-vaccine but is skeptical of mercury and other chemicals in them.

Attendees shouted and jeered in response.

 “I am pro-safety. I worked for years to raise awareness about the mercury and toxic chemicals in fish, and nobody called me anti-fish,” Kennedy added at the time.

With public health officials reporting 256 cases of measles between Texas and New Mexico as of Thursday, Kennedy’s vaccine skepticism fell under scrutiny last week, as he pushed immune system boosting alternatives that some public health experts called unfounded. 

‘Don’t Be A Lauren’

The Wyoming Department of Health in 2023 ran a “Thank A Vaccine” advertising campaign that included TV, radio, newspaper, poster and digital ads, including on social media. It highlighted the historic success of vaccination, said Deti at the time.

“One reason affecting vaccination rates is likely that younger generations are not familiar with many of the diseases vaccines can prevent,” she said. “These diseases may not seem like real threats today to some people.”

The department launched a TV commercial featuring an old west funeral where attendees lament the passing of “Wyatt,” who died of tetanus from shaving.

Deti said it’s based on a 1922 news clip about a Basin, Wyoming, man who met that fate.

More recently, the department has been running a “trophy deer” radio ad portraying a woman named Lauren who misses the chance to take a trophy deer because she’s sick with the flu, and didn’t get vaccinated.

“Don’t be a Lauren,” says the narrator, “get the flu shot.”

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.