Webinar: From vaccination hesitancy to health - bridging the gap

From vaccination hesitancy to health - bridging the gap

Location: Zoom

The individual uptake of medical countermeasures, including vaccines, is determined by one or more factors. The most studied ones are delineated under the 5-Cs approach: Confidence and trust; Complacency; Convenience; Communication; and Context. These determinants can be seen using the “security lens” building blocks, just like that of Food and Nutrition Security. Accordingly, “vaccination coverage security” is the outcome of the availability, accessibility, adequacy, and utility of vaccines and vaccination.  

Those who deny the important role of vaccinations are at the extreme spectrum of the “hesitancy scale.” In many countries, they have gathered in groups and locations and created strong social networks for people looking for clubs of their own. Their overall approaches to the authorities and their followers, and their provision of social pods, may attract and welcome hesitant people. These social groups have amalgamated further in response to the COVID-19 pandemic countermeasures. They have stood together across countries and borders in cohesive groups, spreading their positions over social media through physical demonstrations and sending opposing and sometimes threatening messages to policy leaders and makers. In some instances, health professionals, communication experts, and others have joined them. 

It is now well-recognized that vaccination hesitancy and denial are major threats to global health. In this presentation, I will analyze the different vectors that pull- and push vaccination coverage and suggest adding the sixth C for vaccination hesitancy: Cohesive groups. I will highlight the important roles of primary healthcare physicians and their teams in counteracting such networks by forming new ones. These include identifying strong advocates for vaccination in the community and bridging them with those who are hesitant. This can build stronger compliance by creating supportive networks that improve health literacy in general, and vaccination literacy, in particular.

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  Dorit Nitzan (Presenter)
  Ben Gurion University

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  Dr Ferdinando Petrazzuoli (Moderator)
  

Ends at 17:30