Clancey Bateman, MS, MPH 😷
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clanceypants.bsky.social
Clancey Bateman, MS, MPH 😷
@clanceypants.bsky.social
150 followers 230 following 170 posts
Public health & behavior change communications | Big fan of hiking, dogs, and reproductive rights.

Opinions are my own.
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clanceypants.bsky.social
As of last week, 16 states were requiring prescriptions for the COVID vaccine.

The situation is still fluid, but several states have issued standing orders that make it available to anyone, without prescriptions: Massachusetts, Colorado, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Washington.
COVID-19 vaccine availability at CVS pharmacies, as of Aug. 29, 2025. The map shows them as unavailable in MA, NV, and NM. Prescription required for specific age groups in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and Maine. They were available in every other state without a prescription.
September 5, 2025 at 4:29 PM
clanceypants.bsky.social
A few additional Q&As on vaccine access in Colorado and Polis's thoughts on RFK Jr.
Commenter: What are you prepared to do to help people get Covid vaccines? Not everyone has a PCP, and people under 65 still need to protect themselves if they live or work with at-risk people. Jared Polis: We are currently figuring out how to make sure people can get it without a prescription and should have it done in the next few days Commenter: Will you be joining Gov. Pritzker of Illinois is working to provide vaccines for everyone in Colorado that needs them? Jared Polis: YES, I formed Governors Safeguarding Democracy with Gov. Pritzker and we work closely together. Commenter: Do you regret vouching for that deranged freak currently dismantling America’s public health systems? Jared Polis: Several people seem to think I am some kind of RFK fan-boy. Obviously the media just loves anything about that guy, and because my message is more nuanced it attracts a lot of attention. I am FOR anything he, or any HHS Secretary does to promote healthy nutrition and chronic disease prevention. I am AGAINST anything he or any HHS Secretary does that is based on pseudo-science, bad science, or casts aspersions on vaccinations.
September 2, 2025 at 9:46 PM
clanceypants.bsky.social
Hoping to see Colorado follow New Mexico's lead in ensuring access to the COVID vaccine for anyone who wants one. Gov. Jared Polis has, in the past, been supportive of RFK but posted this in the Reddit r/Denver AMA last week.

His main takeaway: "Denver doesn't like RFK one bit!" ✅
Jared Polis: I have no standing endorsement of RFK. I was pleased to see him picked instead of a pharma lobbyist like Trump picked last time, but her certainly isn't who Kamala Harris would have picked and I strongly supported her for President. I do think he's not beholden to big pharma and I hope he does more to address chronic disease by improving nutrition. Whether that's worth the damage he does in other areas is hard to predict. I will take on anyone who uses pseudo-science to go after immunization, and that certainly includes RFK. Commenter: Then why is it exceedingly difficult to get a Covid vaccine in Colorado? https://www.axios.com/local/denver/2025/08/29/colorado-covid-vaccines-prescription-cvs-walgreens Any thoughts on RFK also trying to restrict access to life saving medications including antidepressants? Jared Polis: I expect we will get this fixed in the next few days here, I was trying to fix it on Friday but it should be done early next week. I would be against anything RFK or and Secretary of HHS does to restrict access to life saving medications. I believe 100% in empowering people to make their own health care decisions. I'm a critic of the ridiculously long and expensive FDA Approval process and want people to have access to new drugs earlier under the guidance of their physician.
September 2, 2025 at 9:39 PM
clanceypants.bsky.social
There's definitely a COVID surge happening right now! pmc19.com/data/
A map of the U.S. showing states in various shades of red and orange with the title "COVID Wave Underway: COVID-19 Heat, CDC Data & Risk Levels, Higher Transmission in Deep Red." Source: pmc19.com/data. Dated August 18, 2025
August 22, 2025 at 5:22 PM
clanceypants.bsky.social
Thank you, Jerome Adams (former Surgeon General), for speaking up about the CDC shooting, and where we go from here. "Public health workers are not the enemy" 👏 www.statnews.com/2025/08/09/c...
When influential figures amplify falsehoods, they legitimize the anger that leads to violence. Public health professionals, from CDC scientists to local health officials, face harassment, threats, and now gunfire for doing their jobs. This is unacceptable, yet the administration has offered a late and lukewarm condemnation of the shooting, and has thus far failed to address the rhetoric fueling it.
August 11, 2025 at 6:39 PM
clanceypants.bsky.social
My dog's daycare is doing more to encourage routine vaccination and community care than the CDC.
what you should know about canine cough and respiratory illness We want to keep you in the loop about something that occasionally affects dogs when they are around other dogs in settings like veterinary offices, daycares, pet supply stores, and even your own neighborhood: Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease Complex (CIRDC), also known as canine cough. As with the human cold, these illnesses have many different causes and can spread in any shared space, whether your dog is playing in daycare, walking through a high-traffic area, or sniffing around the same sidewalk dozens of neighborhood dogs visit each day. Even with excellent care and cleaning protocols, no place is immune. Most canine cough cases are mild, but some dogs, especially puppies, seniors, or those with underlying health issues, may need extra support to recover. here’s what you can count on from us: Our staff are trained to understand the symptoms of illness, and we closely monitor all dogs in our care for any signs of illness. We act quickly, communicate openly, and always prioritize your dog’s health. Our daily cleaning and disinfecting protocols ensure we can minimize the risk of illness. how you can help: If your dog is coughing, has nasal discharge, seems under the weather, or has been exposed to illness, please keep them home and consult your vet before returning to daycare. Make sure your pup is up to date on their recommended vaccines, including Bordetella, and check with your vet if you’re unsure. Let us know if your dog develops symptoms after a recent visit: transparency helps protect the whole pack
May 30, 2025 at 6:39 PM
clanceypants.bsky.social
My husband had to go straight from vacation to a conference in Minneapolis this week and was pleasantly surprised to not be the only one masking, for once.

Shoutout @cidrap.bsky.social and @mtosterholm.bsky.social, who are doing so much work to keep the public informed about COVID!
Text messages that say "People still wear masks in MN! My Uber driver, the hotel concierge, and some randos"
May 21, 2025 at 5:56 PM
clanceypants.bsky.social
Masks are a critical public health tool that help protect people from COVID and other airborne viruses, and attempts to ban them endanger anyone who wants to protect their health. Everyone has a right to wear a mask.

If you live in NY, contact your elected officials to tell them #NoNYMaskBan.
Image Description: Drawing of a person wearing a mask and NY hat. Text says: CONTACT YOUR NY STATE SENATOR AND ASSEMBLY MEMBER And urge them to speak out against mask bans and to commit to not support mask ban legislation. #NoNYMaskBan COVIDAdvocacyNY.org
April 10, 2025 at 8:42 PM
clanceypants.bsky.social
Public health communications staff have been unfairly blamed for many of our failures during the COVID-19 pandemic, when these failures are actually systemic and many of them related to INTERNAL communication. So I am, of course, not surprised to see communication staff across HHS getting the axe.
Screenshot of an email from STAT news: "What about “radical transparency”? The layoffs included major cuts to teams across the agencies handling communications, media relations, and Freedom of Information Act requests. While Kennedy previously vowed to promote “radical transparency,” workers say the layoffs will severely hamstring HHS’s ability to relay critical health information to the public. “He only got half of that right — this is radical,” said Kevin Griffis, the former director of communications at the CDC who left several days ago."
April 2, 2025 at 4:13 PM
clanceypants.bsky.social
Friendly reminder that it's not too late to get your flu shot. (Image via @kkjetelina.bsky.social)
February 20, 2025 at 2:18 PM
clanceypants.bsky.social
Delighted to spot a #CorsiRosenthal box in a recent episode of This Old House! #COVIDIsAirborne
January 18, 2025 at 5:08 PM
clanceypants.bsky.social
When public health is successful, it often becomes invisible. That could be our downfall when it comes to vaccine uptake. www.americanprogress.org/article/chil...
Perhaps partly owing to the success of this effort in slashing the rate of once common diseases, many parents today may take vaccines for granted. The percentage of parents who consider it “very” or “extremely important” for their children to get vaccinated fell from 94 percent in 2001 to 69 percent in 2024.3 They may not remember that the infectious diseases that modern vaccines prevent—which, thankfully, are now rare—once claimed the lives of millions of U.S. children or left them disabled.4
January 13, 2025 at 10:56 PM
clanceypants.bsky.social
This whole interview 🔥

"And I think that if you’re out there taking COVID seriously, and if you’re out there still trying to avoid repeated infections, you’re still doing the right thing. It is still possible to avoid being infected and a worthwhile goal."
AC: It is primarily difficult to deal with because it has a lot of characteristics that make it tricky. One, it kills slowly. Two, it has a low infection fatality rate. Three, it is highly contagious. And four, immunity wanes very quickly. All of that said, essentially the first obstacle we must deal with is the idea of pandemic denialism. We are like lemmings at this point. There is no real appreciation at the public level for the scale of threat we are facing. The first thing that public health would need to do, long before we get to nasal vaccines, is to stop the lying. We need to tell people why it’s bad to get COVID repeatedly. Tell people why COVID can shorten one’s lifespan. I think most people who are alive today will face the reality that COVID is a contributing factor to their death. Do people know this? You have a 65-fold increased risk of a heart attack on day zero of COVID if you are vaccinated (the number is approximately double that if you’re not). It is very likely COVID can contribute to cancer. COVID decreases your overall immune responsiveness. It’s very likely that COVID causes 50 other things. You can build these cases from literature. In fact, there are so many papers on COVID that people can’t keep ahead of it, there are literally hundreds of thousands of papers on this topic. But I’ve never seen such a wide disconnect between what the public thinks and what science says.
January 2, 2025 at 6:41 PM