(Can we encourage our ACEs Connection communities to link up with health departments to facilitate vaccination programs? [DH])
From SAPIENS: What Makes Vaccines Social?
Some people are wary of or may refuse vaccines. Social scientists are part of a movement to encourage self-empowerment to end the current pandemic.
By Emily Brunson and Monica Schoch-Spana15 JAN 2021
Now is a pressing time for vaccinating the U.S. population (and the world) against COVID-19. But there are social hurdles that need to be addressed.
As of this writing, more than 380,000 people have died from SARS-CoV-2 in the U.S. alone. Worldwide, more than 92 million people have been infected, and while many of these individuals have recovered completely, some are experiencing long-term health problems.
In combination with this, millions in the U.S. and around the world have lost their jobs due to the pandemic, leading to economic insecurity and food and housing crises. Psychological distress and domestic violence have also become more common. The world population at large is frustrated, concerned, scared, angry, exhausted, and very much wanting the current situation to end.
A potential resolution is on the horizon, but for COVID-19 vaccination to work, people need to be willing to take the vaccines. Like many social scientists working in the fields of vaccine uptake and disaster response and recovery, we anticipated that widespread acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines would be a critical issue—an issue upon which the success of the vaccination campaign, and the solution to the pandemic, would hinge. That is what we are now seeing today.
For our part as anthropologists, we have co-led two projects to help understand and address vaccine acceptance: a National Science Foundation–funded CONVERGE initiative that resulted in two national reports, and more recently CommuniVax, a national coalition to strengthen minority communities’ roles in an equitable vaccination rollout, sponsored by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Others are also working on these issues, including groups from the National Institutes of Health, the Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins University, and the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
But even more is needed. The social science behind vaccine uptake—who is or isn’t willing to be vaccinated and why—needs to be funded and put into action.
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