Monthly Roundup: Immunization Advocates in the Media, Global Vaccination Stakeholders Gather for Inaugural VARN2022 Conference

March 10, 2022

Working with Journalists in South Asia for Better Reporting on Vaccines

Immunization Advocates’s partner Internews, along with Accountability Lab Nepal, last month hosted a South Asia regional vaccine acceptance dialogue for journalists, “COVID-19 Vaccines: Access and Accountability.” The webinar brought together immunization researchers, activists, journalism mentors and reporters, including Baylor College of Medicine’s National School of Tropical Medicine Associate Dean Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi, Yale Law School Global Fellow and health and human rights activist Patralekha Chatterjee, Yenepoya University adjunct professor and health bioethics researcher Dr. Anant Bhan, among others.

Journalists in Brazil get Recognized for Their Work on Training Program

In another virtual event last month our partner Agência Bori hosted the InfoVacina award ceremony with a cohort of 13 journalists, their mentors and renowned specialists – including Sabin’s Applied Epidemiology Vice President Dr. Denise Garrett. InfoVacina was created last year by Agência Bori with support from Immunization Advocates to coordinate an ongoing dialogue among journalists interested in deepeing their knowledge and coverage of vaccines. Awarded stories were featured in top-tier media in Brazil, including Agence France-Presse Brazil/Argentina, Folha de São Paulo, Vocativo.Com, Estado de São Paulo and GZH/Rádio Gaúcha.

Immunization Advocates in the Media

The InfoVacina awards were covered by top-tier media in Brazil, including CBN-Globo Radio, Folha de São Paulo (daily), Estadão / Estado de São Paulo (TV news channel, portal, daily), Terra Brazil (portal), GZH / Radio Gaucha / Zero Hora (online daily, radio networks), Making Of (portal), and Associação Brasileira de Imprensa (Brazilian Press Association site).

Journalists participating in the training program led by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF), with support from Immunization Advocates, have published 22 stories (and counting!) in African and Latin American media outlets, including The Times (Malawi), Mena (Tunisia), Daily Mail (Zambia), Front Page Africa (regional, with a story on Liberia), CBS Radio (Uganda; in Luganda), Cameroon Radio & TV, La Nación via World Today News (Costa Rica) and ProDavinci (Venezuela).

Immunization Advocates also connected ProPublica science journalist Caroline Chen with Dr. Scott Krugman, pediatrics expert, through the Vaccine Advocates’ Find an Expert Tool, for her story “What’s Holding Up the COVID Vaccines for Children Under 5?”

Nursing Now Challenge, Sabin Celebrate International Women’s Day

The Nursing Now Challenge and Immunization Advocates hosted an International Women’s Day Twitter chat on Tuesday, March 8, featuring participants from the Nursing Now Challenge and other experts. The conversation focused on leadership development and career progression for women in the health workforce.

Nursing Now Challenge and Immunization Advocates also recently hosted the first webinar in a series that focuses on the role of nurses and midwives in promoting vaccine equity and acceptance. This first session features our program’s Immunization Champions from Lesotho, Malawi, Nigeria, Sudan and Uganda. They shared their experiences overcoming obstacles and promoting advocacy initiatives to address vaccine equity and acceptance.

Insights Dialogue: Social Media Listening

The Insights Dialogue initiative held a live engagement on Wednesday, February 23 on “Social Media Listening for Improved Vaccine Acceptance.” Global health experts from 19 to Zero, Minority Rights Group, Verité Research and UNICEF shared experiences using social listening to drive programming decisions for improved vaccine uptake, specifically focused on minority and vulnerable populations. Experts also shared tools and resources designed to help immunization professionals implement and use social listening data in their own work.

Coming this month from Insights Dialogue:

Thursday, March 10: Vax Up podcast featuring Maya Health in Guatemala
Thursday, March 24: Vaccine Chatbots: The role of AI in driving demand

VARN2022 Brings Together Global Vaccine Acceptance and Demand Stakeholders Across Sectors

The inaugural Vaccination Acceptance Research Network (VARN) Annual Conference wrapped up last week, drawing 750 multi-sectoral registrants from across the globe. From March 1-3, “VARN2022: Shaping Global Vaccine Acceptance with Localized Knowledge” offered a space for exploration, research results sharing and discussing key priorities and opportunities emerging across the ecosystem of vaccination programs, policies and practice. Learn more about the conference by viewing the agenda and reading Sabin’s live tweets @SabinVaccine. And don’t miss Community-led Strategies to Aid Vaccine Acceptance: Five Case Studies from the Global South, the recently published initial case-study report from Sabin’s 2020-2021 Social and Behavioral Grants Program!

Sabin, IVAC Webinar Examines COVID-19 Messaging

Sabin’s Vaccine Acceptance & Demand’s Director of Research Kate Hopkins participated in a webinar last month with the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC). The webinar, “Making COVID-19 vaccines APPEALing: Pilot message testing in India,” explored findings from a literature review that examined message appeals and their effectiveness in nudging people toward vaccine acceptance. Panelists shared how various appeals were tested among individuals in India to see which are most persuasive in vaccine decision-making.

Upcoming Events:

On Tuesday, March 15 at 10:00-11:30 AM EST / 6:00-7:30 PM EAT / 5:00-6:30 PM CA / 8:30-10:00 PM IST, Internews and Immunization Advocates are hosting the first of two Global Dialogues for journalists. “Unpacking COVAX” will have Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, as a featured guest. Journalists around the world can register for the open discussion here.

Community Conversations on Vaccines: Season Three

Season three of Immunization Advocates’s Community Conversations on Vaccines will be available next month. Subscribe today to listen to previous seasons and preview season three! Available on Amazon Music, Apple, Audible, Gaana, Google, Spotify and Stitcher.