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Di Lorenzo A, Stefanizzi P, Tafuri S. Are we saying it right? Communication strategies for fighting vaccine hesitancy. Front Public Health 2024; 11:1323394. [PMID: 38249411 PMCID: PMC10796481 DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1323394] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2023] [Accepted: 12/12/2023] [Indexed: 01/23/2024] Open
Abstract
Vaccine hesitancy is a multi-faceted phenomenon, deeply rooted in cultural, socioeconomic and personal background. Communication is deemed fundamental in fighting vaccine hesitancy. Medical communication should be accessible, relying both on an emotional approach and accurate information. Trained professionals should curate communication with the public.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio Di Lorenzo
- Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
| | - Pasquale Stefanizzi
- Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
| | - Silvio Tafuri
- Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
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Steinbaum S, Jagannath J, Seymour L, Corby P, Kulkarni R, France K. Oral healthcare providers play a vital role in vaccination efforts: Patient perspectives. Clin Exp Dent Res 2023; 9:1169-1179. [PMID: 37803883 PMCID: PMC10728510 DOI: 10.1002/cre2.777] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2023] [Revised: 08/07/2023] [Accepted: 08/15/2023] [Indexed: 10/08/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Human papillomavirus (HPV) is associated with 70% of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the infectious cause of a global pandemic that killed millions worldwide. Effective vaccinations exist against both diseases, but patient acceptance remains a challenge. The objective of this study was to assess patients' attitudes toward oral healthcare providers' (OHCPs) roles in HPV and COVID-19 vaccinations. METHODS A cross-sectional survey of young adult patients was distributed in Philadelphia, PA, between April and June 2021. The survey assessed knowledge and attitudes around OHCPs serving various roles in COVID-19 and HPV vaccination. RESULTS Nearly 70% of 163 respondents would accept the recommendation for a COVID-19 vaccine from an OHCP, while 56% would for HPV. Those previously vaccinated against COVID-19 were more comfortable discussing COVID-19 vaccines (92%, p < .001) or HPV vaccines (76%, p < .001) with OHCPs compared to those who were unvaccinated against COVID-19. African American/Black patients were less comfortable discussing vaccines, irrespective of vaccination status. CONCLUSIONS OHCP can play a vital role in increasing the overall COVID-19 and HPV vaccination status of the public, as demonstrated by the high acceptance of dental involvement in both vaccine campaigns. Racial disparity in vaccination attitude is a public health challenge that needs to be addressed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Steinbaum
- Department of OrthodonticsUniversity of Pennsylvania School of Dental MedicinePhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUSA
| | | | - Lake Seymour
- Department of OrthodonticsHarvard School of Dental MedicineBostonMassachusettsUSA
| | - Patricia Corby
- Department of Oral MedicineUniversity of Pennsylvania School of Dental MedicinePhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUSA
| | - Roopali Kulkarni
- Department of Oral MedicineUniversity of Pennsylvania School of Dental MedicinePhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUSA
| | - Katherine France
- Department of Oral MedicineUniversity of Pennsylvania School of Dental MedicinePhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUSA
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Wang Y, Chen Y. Characterizing discourses about COVID-19 vaccines on Twitter: a topic modeling and sentiment analysis approach. J Commun Healthc 2023; 16:103-112. [PMID: 36919802 DOI: 10.1080/17538068.2022.2054196] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Evidence-based health communication is crucial for facilitating vaccine-related knowledge and addressing vaccine hesitancy. To that end, it is important to understand the discourses about COVID-19 vaccination and attend to the publics' emotions underlying those discourses. METHODS We collect tweets related to COVID-19 vaccines from March 2020 to March 2021. In total, 304,292 tweets from 134,015 users are collected. We conduct a Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) modeling analysis and a sentiment analysis to analyze the discourse themes and sentiments. RESULTS This study identifies seven themes of COVID-19 vaccine-related discourses. Vaccine advocacy (24.82%) is the most widely discussed topic about COVID-19 vaccines, followed by vaccine hesitancy (22.29%), vaccine rollout (12.99%), vaccine facts (12.61%), recognition for healthcare workers (12.47%), vaccine side effects (10.07%), and vaccine policies (4.75%). Trust is the most salient emotion associated with COVID-19 vaccine discourses, followed by anticipation, fear, joy, sadness, anger, surprise, and disgust. Among the seven topics, vaccine advocacy tweets are most likely to receive likes and comments, and vaccine fact tweets are most likely to receive retweets. CONCLUSIONS When talking about vaccines, publics' emotions are dominated by trust and anticipation, yet mixed with fear and sadness. Although tweets about vaccine hesitancy are prevalent on Twitter, those messages receive fewer likes and comments than vaccine advocacy messages. Over time, tweets about vaccine advocacy and vaccine facts become more dominant whereas tweets about vaccine hesitancy become less dominant among COVID-19 vaccine discourses, suggesting that publics become more confident about COVID-19 vaccines as they obtain more information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuan Wang
- Department of Communication, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Yonghao Chen
- College of Information Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
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Abstract
Most vaccines protect both the vaccinated individual and the society by reducing the transmission of infectious diseases. In order to eliminate infectious diseases, individuals need to consider social welfare beyond mere self-interest-regardless of ethnic, religious, or national group borders. It has therefore been proposed that vaccination poses a social contract in which individuals are morally obliged to get vaccinated. However, little is known about whether individuals indeed act upon this social contract. If so, vaccinated individuals should reciprocate by being more generous to a vaccinated other. On the contrary, if the other doesn't vaccinate and violates the social contract, generosity should decline. Three preregistered experiments investigated how a person's own vaccination behavior, others' vaccination behavior, and others' group membership influenced a person's generosity toward respective others. The experiments consistently showed that especially compliant (i.e., vaccinated) individuals showed less generosity toward nonvaccinated individuals. This effect was independent of the others' group membership, suggesting an unconditional moral principle. An internal metaanalysis (n = 1,032) confirmed the overall social contract effect. In a fourth experiment (n = 1,212), this pattern was especially pronounced among vaccinated individuals who perceived vaccination as a moral obligation. It is concluded that vaccination is a social contract in which cooperation is the morally right choice. Individuals act upon the social contract, and more so the stronger they perceive it as a moral obligation. Emphasizing the social contract could be a promising intervention to increase vaccine uptake, prevent free riding, and, eventually, support the elimination of infectious diseases.
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Wiysonge CS, Waggie Z, Hawkridge A, Schoub B, Madhi SA, Rees H, Hussey G. Advocating for efforts to protect African children, families, and communities from the threat of infectious diseases: report of the First International African Vaccinology Conference. Pan Afr Med J 2016; 23:53. [PMID: 27217879 PMCID: PMC4862784 DOI: 10.11604/pamj.2016.23.53.9097] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2016] [Accepted: 02/18/2016] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
One means of improving healthcare workers’ knowledge of and attitudes to vaccines is through running vaccine conferences which are accessible, affordable, and relevant to their everyday work. Various vaccinology conferences are held each year worldwide. These meetings focus heavily on basic science with much discussion about new developments in vaccines, and relatively little coverage of policy, advocacy, and communication issues. A negligible proportion of delegates at these conferences come from Africa, home to almost 40% of the global burden of vaccine-preventable diseases. To the best of our knowledge, no major vaccinology conference has ever been held on the African continent apart from World Health Organization (WHO) meetings. The content of the first International African Vaccinology Conference was planned to be different; to focus on the science, with a major part of discussions being on clinical, programmatic, policy, and advocacy issues. The conference was held in Cape Town, South Africa, from 8 to 11 November 2012. The theme of the conference was “Advocating for efforts to protect African children, families, and communities from the threat of infectious diseases”. There were more than 550 registered participants from 55 countries (including 37 African countries). There were nine pre-conference workshops, ten plenary sessions, and 150 oral and poster presentations. The conference discussed the challenges to universal immunisation in Africa as well as the promotion of dialogue and communication on immunisation among all stakeholders. There was general acknowledgment that giant strides have been made in Africa since the global launch of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation in 1974. For example, there has been significant progress in introducing new and under-utilised vaccines; including hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenza type b, pneumococcal conjugate, rotavirus, meningococcal A conjugate, and human papillomavirus vaccines. In May 2012, African countries endorsed the Global Vaccine Action Plan at the World Health Assembly. However, more than six million children remain incompletely vaccinated in Africa leading to more than one million vaccine-preventable deaths annually. In addition, there are persistent problems with leadership and planning, vaccine stock management, supply chain capacity and quality, provider-parent communication, and financial sustainability. The conference delegates agreed to move from talking to taking concrete actions around children's health, and to ensure that African governments commit to saving children's lives. They would advocate for lower costs of immunisation programmes in Africa, perhaps through bulk buying and improved administration of vaccine rollout through the New Partnership for Africa's Development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charles Shey Wiysonge
- Vaccines for Africa Initiative, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Centre for Evidence-based Health Care, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Zainab Waggie
- Vaccines for Africa Initiative, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Division of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Anthony Hawkridge
- Vaccines for Africa Initiative, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Department of Health, Provincial Government of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Barry Schoub
- National Institute for Communicable Diseases, National Health Laboratory Service, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Shabir Ahmed Madhi
- National Institute for Communicable Diseases, National Health Laboratory Service, Johannesburg, South Africa; Medical Research Council: Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Helen Rees
- Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Gregory Hussey
- Vaccines for Africa Initiative, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Division of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
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Abstract
This article provides an overview of some aspects of seasonal, pre-pandemic and pandemic influenza vaccines and initiatives aimed to increase influenza vaccine use within the Asia-Pacific region. Expanding the use of influenza vaccines in the Asia-Pacific region faces many challenges. Despite the recent regional history for the emergence of novel viruses, SARS, the H5N1 and H7N9, and the generation of and global seeding of seasonal influenza viruses and initiatives by WHO and other organisations to expand influenza awareness, the use of seasonal influenza vaccines remains low. The improvement in current vaccine technologies with the licensing of quadrivalent, live-attenuated, cell culture-based, adjuvanted and the first recombinant influenza vaccine is an important step. The development of novel influenza vaccines able to provide improved protection and with improved manufacturing capacity is also advancing rapidly. However, of ongoing concern are seasonal influenza impact and the low use of seasonal influenza vaccines in the Asia-Pacific region. Improved influenza control strategies and their implementation in the region are needed. Initiatives by the World Health Organization (WHO), and specifically the Western Pacific Regional Office of WHO, are focusing on consistent vaccine policies and guidelines in countries in the region. The Asian-Pacific Alliance for the Control of Influenza (APACI) is contributing through the coordination of influenza advocacy initiates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lance C Jennings
- Microbiology Unit, Canterbury Health Laboratories, Christchurch, New Zealand; Department of Pathology, University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand
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