Zip Code by Zip Code: Government Tracking of ‘Vaccine Hesitancy Scores’ During the Pandemic

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Zip Code by Zip Code: Government Tracking of ‘Vaccine Hesitancy Scores’ During the Pandemic | Julie Threet

"Vaccine equity score, age, how many people are five plus… population with one plus dose, population with booster doses... They're down to the last number, yeah, to the zip code — everything."

Flashlights Podcast

Jun 03, 2026

Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5BX6N3yikrfgKQxF1HLLYg
Apple Podcasts link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/zip-code-by-zip-code-government-tracking-of-vaccine/id1863496846?i=1000771046311

This is the second part of my interview with Julie Threet where she discusses the FOIA’d materials from former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra’s secret visit to Butte County in March of 2022 where he went hunting for uninjected kids - and in particular minority kids: Hispanics, Native Americans and Hmong Chinese.

The interview picks up right where we ended the first part: Julie starts reading from the meeting moderators’ talking points. Then we go over the notes that one of the health officials present took during the secret meeting and we end with Butte County’s request for funding that was submitted promptly in the days after the meeting.

Parents were not present at the meeting, only carefully vetted pediatricians and of course Butte County’s top public health officials attended. Press was not allowed.

Below I show a bunch of screenshots from the FOIA’d materials because it’s important to see these incriminating documents with your own eyes and read through them. They reveal in all desired clarity the insidious strategy and tactics of getting the injections into the arms of kids - and again, with particular emphasis on the arms of minority kids which had particularly low injection rates.

They emphasize repeatedly the correlation between poverty and low injection rates: the higher the percentage of Hispanics, Native Americans and Hmong Chinese, the poorer they are and the lower the injection rates.

The Moderators’ Talking Points

Asking Pediatricians to Share “What Pearls They Have Gained” About Parents’ Vaccine Hesitancy

There were two moderators in this meeting: Butte County’s former Chief Medical Officer Dr. Andrew Miller and Erin Cox, then Division Director at Butte County Public Health.

They come right to the point in the opening of the meeting: “the conversation today should be around what we can do to ensure that more children are getting protected against Covid-19.” In other words: how to get more shots into the arms of 5 to 11 year olds.

And the opening question went to the attending pediatricians: “How do you in your practice approach vaccine hesitant parents… specifically parents and guardians that have been vaccinated but are hesitant to get their children vaccinated.” Yeah, right. They weren’t even trying anymore to brainwash UNVACCINATED PARENTS into giving the shots to their kids.

“What pearls have you gained to share with the group?” the moderators asked the pediatricians. “Pearls” of their gathered experience and wisdom to be served up to HHS Secretary Becerra. “What works and what doesn’t work?”

“Vaccine Progress Update - by ZIP Code Tabulation Area”

They had the injection data down to every zip code, down to every single individual inside each zip code. Have a look at the table below: it lists at the top left a “Vaccine Equity Metric Quartile’; the “VEM Score” (Vaccine Equity Metric); the “Hesitancy Score.”

They know exactly how many “active providers” there are per zip code, the number of people who did not get the injections at all, those who got 1 or two of the basic shots and those who got booster shots.

Have a look at the correlation between percent of population fully vaccinated and the value of the “hesitancy score.” They knew exactly which zip codes to target with their “tweaked” messenging. Zip code 95969 had the lowest vaccination rate with 21% and accordingly the highest “hesitancy score” with 20%:

Targeting the County That has Less Than Half the Vaccination Rate As California Overall

Here you see a comparison between uninjected populations in California and Butte County: 14% versus almost 39%.

Among the targeted kids aged 5 to 11, 17% in Butte County got the two basic shots whereas it’s 32% overall in California.

The FOIA’d Notes from the Secret Meeting with Becerra

Searching for Trusted Voices to Get Immigrant Families to Inject Their Kids

It was likely one of the present public health officials from Butte County who took the meeting notes that Julie Threet received together with all the other FOIA’d materials.

According to these notes, HHS Secretary Becerra apparently said towards the beginning of the meeting that immigrant families want to know whom they can trust, and that lack of confidence and “good information” cause hesitancy. He asks if there is a way to connect that population with a voice they trust. A voice that will bring them to overcome their hesitancy:

Pediatrician Jumps at the Opportunity to Make Money by Injecting Kids that Walgreens Refused to Inject

Below a pediatrician seems to quote what he or she hears from parents: that they will do an experimental thing on themselves but not on their kids. That people are scared.

And, remarkable in its unscrupulous frankness, this pediatrician describes how he/she jumped at the opportunity to inject kids when it became known that Walgreens “wouldn’t vaccinate 5 year olds.”

Take the Messaging and Tweak it. Use a Familiar Face as Messenger.

Below you see how they discussed with Becerra how to overcome distrust. That this will take years since it’s gone for good. There’s mistrust now: the “biggest thing” they have to fight.

Becerra wants to know which groups people trust. And the answer is: “There is none.” That’s why they need trusted individuals like Butte County’s Sheriff.: “We need to find an agreed individual to be that face.”

The messanging must be “tweaked” to be effective:

Becerra: “How are we going to tip folks towards vaccination. Help me!”

What, Becerra said according to the meeting nots=es, would be the optimal message to get to families?

Butte County, he is told, has a problem. One of Butte County’s health officials said: “Not even half the elected is supporting… the guidelines that we have to follow.”

Becerra remarks that “we” will target specific areas with high vaccine hesitancy - like Chico, capital of Butte County. He asks Butte’s public health officials to devise a plan on “how we are going to try to reach and tip folks towards vaccination. Help me!”

Becerra Demands That Butte County Submits a Funding Request

Federal Dollars Needed to Overcome “Vaccine Hesitancy” in Small, Rural Areas

“Butte County is home to a disproportionate number of socially vulnerable people,” it says in the county’s funding request. And, as we already know, “socially vulnerable people” (i.e. poor minority populations) don’t like to vax their kids.

They have the data cleanly parceled up into quartiles, the Vaccine Equity Metric Quartiles we encountered above in their sprawling database: “These lower quartile locations also have the lowest vaccination rates in the County and express the most hesitancy towards COVID-19 vaccinations.”

Calling on Pediatricians to Go After the 5 to 11 Year Olds

They are the ones with the lowest injection rates of all age groups in Butte County, Butte County’s public health officials write in the Project Overview part of their funding request. Game on.

What’s the cause? But of course: it’s the “overwhelming amount of misinformation and disinformation circulating regarding potential side effects.” )The only thing they left out is malinformation. )

Pediatricians to the rescue: Parents don’t trust public health advice any longer. But what about the familiar face of their kids’ pediatrician? Is there any trust to be found there?

In the funding request’s Project Overview they write: “To improve the COVID-19 vaccination rates for children it is essential to engage local providers who serve as the trusted messengers to parents of young children.”

“Using Voices of the Providers” to Brainwash Parents into Injecting Their Kids

In the funding request’s project summary, they circle back to the essential point: get pediatricians in line to nudge, cajole, pressure or humiliate parents into injecting their kids: “This proposed project focuses on engaging providers…”

The focus is on the the children “who reside in lower HPI quartile neighborhoods.” They know exactly in which zip codes they reside.

Butte County will also use the grant money to “launch a media campaign encouraging parents to talk to their child’s pediatrician or family provider about the COVID-19 vaccine.”

Very interesting is the following sentence: “The objective is to increase interest from parents and help providers feel confident in giving the COVID-19 vaccine to their patients.”

Hear, hear: Not all pediatricians are on board. Perhaps a majority. We know from the email chain leading up to the meeting with Becerra that Butte County’s health officials carefully vetted and selected pediatricians they deemed reliable to participate in the secret meeting with Becerra.

What One Pediatrician Hesitates to Do, a Group of Them Will Do

In the Scope of Work section of Butte County’s funding request, there are two goals. Goal 1 is, unsurprisingly, to increase the number of pediatricians in the county that are willing to inject little kids with the mRNA poison.

Butte County’s public health officials came up with pretty lame objectives how to reach that first goal: streamlining the “vaccine enrollment process,” providing “technical assistance” to pediatricians, planning virtual panel discussions for them and bombarding them with “regular emails” about “vaccine science” and “current vaccines guidelines.” What joy.

The first objective listed in the table below is interesting though: it’s the creation of something like a local pediatrician network to “share COVID-19 vaccine information and work on vaccine efforts” with the goal of “establish[ing] collaboration of local pediatric providers.” What one doesn’t dare to do his own, a group will have no problem - the thinking seems to be:

Reducing “Vaccine Hesitancy” Among Parents

Goal 2 is to “reduce vaccine hesitancy among parents of children.” And not just any parents in Butte County but in particular those of Spanish, Native American and Hmong heritage.

How will they reach the goal? With a media campaign that will distribute materials and social media messages via aligned community organizations and “resource programs that serve children,” among other things.

Parents will be urged via billboards and transit ads to “talk to their child’s pediatrician about the COVID-19 vaccine.”

And another objective is to mail “materials in multiple languages to parents” pressuring them to talk to their kids’ pediatrician “about the vaccine.”

The Funding Timeline Extends All the Way to June 2024

The immediate grant money must be used up within a few months. But not to worry: there is more money where that first money came from. The money source will simply be switched over to the California Department of Public Health.

Butte County’s State and Federal overlords will monitor the injection rates on a monthly basis “to evaluate whether these efforts are having a significant impact and/or whether new and different approaches need to be implemented.”

Injection Rates by Zip Code

Butte County included in the funding request the same table that was used by the moderators during the meeting with Becerra.

I wish we had this table populated with data from the next months to evaluate whether the county reached its perfidious goals: get pediatricians to inject more kids and pressure parents to have their kids injected by trusted pediatricians.