A summary of presentations from the weekly Summit partner webinars
October 7, 2021 – The latest Summit summary
- CDC’s COVID-19 Vaccination Field Guide: 12 Strategies for Your Community – Sarah Hummer (CDC)
- Sanofi Pasteur Flu and COVID Co-administration Study Results – Ruvim Izikson (Sanofi Pasteur)
- American Nurses Association Flu Campaign Update – Holly Carpenter (American Nurses Association)
- Announcements
CDC’s COVID-19 Vaccination Field Guide: 12 Strategies for Your Community – Sarah Hummer (CDC)
Sarah Hummer, MA, contractor: CDC COVID-19 Vaccine Communication and Education Support, Tanaq Support Services, gave a presentation on the COVDI-19 Vaccination Field Guide: 12 Strategies for Your Community.
What is the COVID-19 Vaccination Field Guide?
The COVID-19 Vaccination Field Guide is a compilation of evidence-based strategies to promote and increase COVID-19 vaccination and uptake based on research-proven methods and stories from the field. This includes strategies from across the country and tools to help identify barriers of vaccination and assessing community needs for vaccine interventions. Throughout the guide there are links to detailed resources for intervention implementation.
Who should use the field guide?
The guide is intended to be used to support the work of state and local health departments, public health coalitions, hospitals, health systems, clinics, school districts, colleges, universities, community organizations and leaders such as faith- and community-based organizations, non-profits, small businesses, and local government.
The field guide has three primary sections:
- Common Barriers – This section covers the common barriers to vaccine confidence an uptake, divided into structural, behavioral, and informational barriers.
- Understanding Your Community – Not all barriers are relevant in all communities so this section offers you tools you can use to understand the various needs and barriers of different communities to help you find potential solutions for your community of focus. The tools include CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index, “Walk a Mile” Exercise, Diagnostic Tool for Identifying and Addressing COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Challenges, and Rapid Community Assessment Guide.
- Vaccine Confidence and Uptake Strategies – This section includes the 12 evidence-based strategies to help increase COVID-19 vaccine confidence and uptake. The research that supports each strategy is provided along with real-world examples and includes links to more information about the strategies, including guidance and implementation resources.
12 COVID-19 Vaccination Strategies for Your Community
Not all barriers are relevant in all communities, therefore a combination of several strategies may work for a community. State and local health departments, community- and faith-based organizations, and local non-profits are encouraged to try a combination of these 12 strategies to help increase vaccine confidence and uptake. The second section, “Understanding Your Community,” provides the tools needed to assess and overcome the barriers of the community. The guide is intended to be a menu of options for what is most useful to your community.
When implementing these strategies, consider the real-world factors by assessing the cost (dollars, time, effort, staffing), involving community leaders in planning and execution, and piloting the effort to measure success before wider execution.
One Example: Strategy 10 – Effective Messages Delivered by Trusted Messengers
Strategy 10 is “Effective Messages Delivered by Trusted Messengers.” Effective messages have undergone testing with intended populations and shown to produce a desired outcome. Trusted messengers are seen as credible sources of information by specific populations and these messengers, which may include experts, can be trained to be vaccine ambassadors.
Barriers addressed in messaging include mistrust, health literacy, misinformation, and lack of adequate information. These have been key barriers in the COVID-19 vaccination effort.
Some of the research for the messaging came from the COVID-19 States Project Report (January 25, 2021). The results were evaluated from two studies designed to test effective communication strategies for increasing COVID-19 vaccine confidence and intent. The first study looked at five messages and one control message to evaluate the effect it had on people’s willingness to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Topic themes evaluated involved patriotism, harm reduction, social norms, scientist recommendation, and physician recommendation. The results showed that messages involving physicians or scientists recommending vaccination were the most compelling.
A second study looked at how effective the messages were and found that those delivered by politicians increased resistance to vaccination, while messages delivered by scientists and physician increased vaccine confidence and intent.
These messages need to be continually evaluated across populations for effectiveness so that campaigns can be tailored to specific concerns of demographics, which is shown to be more effective than generalized messaging.
“The Conversation” Campaign
The Conversation is a nationwide campaign focused on adults and led by several organizations: The Black Coalition Against COVID, The Kaiser Family Foundation, and Esperanza Hope for All. This campaign features fifty videos of Black and Hispanic physicians, nurses, and scientists talking about vaccine facts and dispelling misinformation.
The content in this campaign is free for educational, community, and organizational use. You may download and use the materials in English and Spanish. Materials include graphics, print media, social media content, and TV and radio PSAs. Please link this campaign on your websites and social media with the hashtag #BetweenUsAboutUs. Currently there are over 21 million views on YouTube.
Share the Field Guide with Your Network
Please share the Field Guide with your network by highlighting it in your next newsletter, sharing it on your social media/website, distributing it to your Listserv, and sharing it at your meetings. If you have any thoughts or feedback about the guide please feel free to contact your feedback and strategy ideas to confidenceconsults@cdc.gov.
When sharing the messages on social media, please use the hashtags: #vaccineconfidence #12vaccinationstrategies #sleeveup #wecandothis #covid19vaccine
Sanofi Pasteur Flu and COVID Co-administration Study Results – Ruvim Izikson (Sanofi Pasteur)
Ruvim Izikson, MD, MPH, director, Scientific and Medical Affairs, Sanofi Pasteur, USA, gave a presentation on Sanofi Pasteur’s influenza and COVID-19 vaccines co-administration study results.
The study evaluated the safety and immunogenicity of high dose influenza vaccine and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine given in different arms on the same day vs given on different days among persons 65 years and older. The preliminary data suggest “that the administration of the vaccines at the same visit had similar immunogenicity responses and a similar safety and tolerability profile compared to each vaccine administered individually.” Study details are pending publication. Links to the published data will be posted on the meeting summary link once available. You can find more information about this study from the press release from Sanofi and at NCT, clinical trial record until the final article is published. Please check back for more information.
Update (10/25/21):
Dr. Izikson’s presentation at the ACIP meeting on October 20, 2021, highlighted the data presented during this Summit call. The slides can be found here:
American Nurses Association Flu Campaign Update – Holly Carpenter (American Nurses Association)
Holly Carpenter, BSN, RN, senior policy advisor, American Nurses Association (ANA), gave a presentation regarding the American Nurses Association Flu Campaign, called Flu Shot Fridays.
Nurses are the most trusted and largest healthcare profession, as they spend the most time with patients. Therefore, they are essential in educating patients and advocating for and administering vaccines.
The ANA represents the interests of the nation’s 4.3 million registered nurses and helps shape the profession by unifying nursing healthcare. There are constituent and state nurse associations in most of the 50 states and U.S. territories. The organization has affiliates that collaborate and help share information. The ANA has a broad reach on social media and with their newsletters, blogs, e-newsletters and journals such The American Nurse (print and digital), ANA annual report, Foundation annual report, and HNHN Update, Nursing Insider (Thursdays – offered to non-members), Member News (monthly), Online Journal of Issues in Nursing (3x/year), ANA SmartBrief (M–F), and Capitol Beat Blog. Through social media alone, ANA is communicating directly with 1.5 million people.
The Race to 200M
In 2020, ANA and Sanofi partnered in their first flu campaign, “Race to 200M,” to encourage Americans to get their flu shot in a year when preparedness was more important than ever. In this dire time, creating a sense of urgency was reflected in the messaging. The campaign was very successful, and many people got their flu shot. In addition to flu vaccination, stay at home orders, social distancing, and masking aided in a record low number of flu cases nationwide.
The 2020–21 flu campaign was a huge success and ensured messages reached key markets. Social media campaigns through ANA and Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation––a free nurse health and safety program that is open to everyone––drove increased social engagement.
Flu Shot Fridays
The ANA and Sanofi Pasteur also partnered in a 2021–22 flu shot campaign, Flu Shot Fridays that kicked off on September 17. The flu education campaign is much more lighthearted than the previous years’. The campaign is centered around being tired of being stuck at home and therefore not wanting to catch the flu. The message is that the flu shot can prevent being stuck at home: “When you go for the flu shot, take a day for yourself!” The target audience for the campaign are Americans 50 years of age and older, those with chronic health conditions and their caregivers, healthcare professionals, and racial and ethnic minorities at high risk for flu-related complications.
This campaign reiterates that any day (not just Fridays) is the perfect time to get the flu shot, and vaccination is essential for protection from the flu, and flu vaccine reduces burden on healthcare workers, and it can help prevent complications, hospitalization, and death. It also stresses that people should use the evidence-based health expertise of nurses and other healthcare professionals to help make the decision to get this very necessary vaccine.
The campaign uses relatable graphics, social media messaging, a toolkit, blogs, presentations, posters, videos, and celebrity spokespeople such as Jennifer Grey, to get the word out. A link to a flu vaccine search option at the bottom of the Flu Shot Fridays web page is also a useful tool for visitors.
The ANA is very invested in vaccination education and their position statement is frequently updated to adjust to the changing times. This summer the ANA came out with a press statement supporting COVID-19 vaccinations for all nurses and healthcare personnel. Many ANA members and staff sit in on national committee meetings like the ACIP.
You may submit questions to holly.carpenter@ana.org.
Questions
Question
What is the position for mandates for flu vaccination in the healthcare setting.
Holly Carpenter
At this point we want nurses to be vaccinated against the flu, however we do not have a position statement about flu vaccine mandates for healthcare workers at this time. For the COVID-19 vaccine, we do not recognize religious exemptions, but we do recognize medical exemptions.
Question
Have you done focus group testing on what some of the barriers might be within the nursing community in getting vaccinated? Did you learn anything from this more recent campaign for what the concerns would be and advice you have for people who work with nurses?
Holly
This campaign is for society as a whole and not geared toward nurses. Some of the survey data show that nurses are in the 90th percentile for getting flu shots. A lot of nurses are getting attacked for their personal beliefs in support of COVID-19 and flu vaccination so we are careful about our messaging. A PR agency contracted by Sanofi looked at focus groups and determined that people are tired of dire messaging and wanted something lighter and more fun. Nurses are in large supportive of flu vaccination and ANA thinks they are important for educating others about the importance of flu vaccination.
Question
Although ANA represents mostly RN’s, are there efforts to also promote flu vaccination for nurses that are not RNs, such as nursing assistants and LPNs?
Holly
ANA represents only RNs. But others, like Nurses Healthy Nation, are putting messages out there for a broader audience.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
L.J Tan (IAC)
The Immunization Action Coalition (IAC), with funding support from Seqirus, is offering a limited quantity of FREE Flu Vaccine buttons and stickers in English and Spanish to support your flu vaccine promotion efforts this season. To receive these supplies at no cost, please PRE-ORDER your buttons and stickers now. Delivery (also at no cost) is anticipated by early October. Order the flu buttons and stickers.
IAC hosted two influenza webinars this September that can now be viewed online.
- The Continued Threat of Influenza and How to Sustain Influenza Vaccination Efforts
- Translating COVID-19 Strategies to Improve Influenza Seasonal Flu Vaccination Efforts
We would like to welcome having more NAIIS member organizations to add their support to the Call to Action on adult immunization. Access the call to action and click on the top righthand button to add your organization.
