The world is coming together to develop safe and effective vaccines to protect against COVID-19. These vaccines will only aid in ending the pandemic if people agree to get immunized. With the increasing politicization of issues surrounding COVID-19, clear, coordinated, and credible messaging will be critical to ensuring high levels of vaccine acceptance. Moreover, strategic communication efforts must specifically address the concerns of communities of color that have been disproportionately affected by the disease. The complex planning involved must begin now, ahead of the release of an approved vaccine.
As part of NEHI's ongoing COVID-19 Vaccine Project, we will be regularly updating this resource list with articles related to the importance of COVID-19 vaccination and immunization, and the importance of vaccine messaging and communication.
Vaccine and Immunization Resource List
- "Ensuring Uptake of Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2" (New England Journal of Medicine)
- "Policing Medicaid and Medicare Managed Care: The Role of Courts and Administrative Agencies" (Michelle Mello)
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"Just 50% of Americans Plan to Get a COVID-19 Vaccine. Here’s How to Win Over the Rest" (American Association for the Advancement of Science)
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"Is the U.S. Ready to Quickly Vaccinate its Population Against COVID-19?" (Jeff McCombs, PhD, Richard Dang, PharmD, APh, BCACP, Yurim Rachel Seo, PharmD/MS(c), Eric Nguyen, PharmD(c), Christopher J. Limbo, PharmD(c), Jonathon Lam, PharmD(c) and Robert Popovian, PharmD, MS)
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"Confusion Spreads Over System to Determine Priority Access to COVID-19 Vaccines" (STAT)
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"A Comprehensive COVID-19 Vaccine Plan" (Center for American Progress)
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"Two-thirds of Americans say they would accept a coronavirus vaccine" (Boston Globe)
In the Globe article, a survey conducted July 10-26 by Harvard, Rutgers, Northeastern and Northwestern universities (with 19K people in 50 states) found that in only 11 states and the District of Columbia did more than 71% of those polled indicate that they were extremely or somewhat likely to get vaccinated. In 10 states, fewer than 60 percent of adults said they’d likely get vaccinated. Moreover, vaccine acceptance also differed by race and ethnicity: Whereas it was 67 percent among white folks, 71% among Latinx and 77% among Asian Americans, only 52% of Black folks said they would likely accept the vaccine. This is troublesome since experts say that between 70-90% of people would need to be vaccinated to get the virus under control.
