Battle Ground doctor co-founds vaccine organization

BATTLE GROUND — A new measles vaccine advocacy organization called Vaccinate Washington has Clark County connections.

Dr. Dino Ramzi, president of the Patient Direct Care clinic in Battle Ground, co-founded Vaccinate Washington with Kathy Hennessy, a special education teacher in Bellingham.

“I have offered vaccinations for free since opening my practice in Clark County. That’s how important I believe them to be,” Ramzi said in a Vaccinate Washington press release. “Immunizations have reduced, eliminated, and even eradicated diseases that our parents and grandparents lived in fear of. Vaccines are the single most positive contribution that science ever made to the public. In the current environment, everyone needs a health professional to kindly and nonjudgmentally get them and their families up-to-date on their recommended vaccines.”

Vaccinate Washington, which is led by parents and community members, has goals to support healthy immunization practices and fight vaccine misinformation, according to the press release. Vaccine Washington also wants to raise the state’s vaccination rates.

Vaccinate Washington wants Washingtonians to be vaccinated according to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ recommended schedule.

“This outbreak has reminded us that vaccine-preventable diseases can quickly re-establish themselves when our vaccination rates fall below the high rates necessary to keep our families and communities protected,” Hennessy said. “We formed Vaccinate Washington to reassure our friends, neighbors and co-workers that vaccination is one of the best ways we have to keep ourselves and each other safe from potentially deadly diseases.”

Learn more at their website: vaxwa.com.