The Challenge
As the world responds to combating the pandemic, a lot of information is shared on interventions. The United Nations Verified initiative, in collaboration with Purpose, commissioned the Center to develop a guide translating the best of research into a practitioner’s guide to the principles of COVID-19 vaccine communications.
What We Did:
Our research began with an information-gathering scan of peer-reviewed research from the US and the UK in vaccine hesitancy, through which we identified a group of scholars with expertise in identity, trust, science communication, etc. Over a period of five days from August 21-25, 2020, we held a series of conversations with these scholars around specific topics related to vaccine hesitancy. These included: What makes people resilient against misinformation? What drives vaccine hesitancy? Which frames will be most effective? What kinds of message strategies have been effective with specific communities? And finally, what are some of the best ways to make taking the vaccine a norm within particular communities? These conversations were transcribed and coded, and we identified the principles shared here.
We applied these principles to generate a survey which was conducted in four countries – France, Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom from October 4-18, 2020.
The survey had more than 1,600 total respondents, with more than 400 respondents per country, and was representative of gender, race, income, geography, and age. It offers preliminary data on testable claims made in this guide.
