VARN 2022 Supplement: Shaping Global Vaccine Acceptance with Localized Knowledge

The Vaccination Action Research Network (VARN), an entity for global leadership in the application and advancement of social and behavioral science insights, research and expertise on vaccination acceptance, published a series of articles in BioMed Central (BMC) as a supplement to their 2022 conference, with research funded by the Sabin Vaccine Institute. 

The articles reflect leading-edge work that was done in communities and countries around the globe to shape the real-time response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The results from this work provided important insights that continue to offer lessons for improving the uptake of lagging immunization—particularly among marginalized and zero-dose communities and shaping more effective strategies for expanding life-course immunization and new vaccine introductions. More on some of these important issues can be reviewed through checking out the most recent dialogues and presentations at this year’s VARN2023.

Take a look at the following articles:

• Leading from the frontlines: community-oriented approaches for strengthening vaccine delivery and acceptance - This research leveraged community-based participatory research to closely involve the community from conception to implementation of an intervention to facilitate vaccine acceptance in Mewat District in Haryana, an area in India with extremely low vaccination coverage.
• Using community theater to improve demand for vaccination services in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria - Despite abundant evidence showing immunization as a lifesaving public health measure, a large proportion of Nigerian children are still not or not fully vaccinated. Lack of awareness and distrust of the immunization process by caregivers are some of the reasons for poor immunization coverage which need to be addressed. This study aimed at improving vaccination demand, acceptance and uptake in Bayelsa and Rivers State, both in the Niger Delta Region (NDR) of Nigeria through a human-centered process of trust building, education and social support.
• Integrated analysis of online signals and insight generation about digital conversations on COVID-19 vaccines in Eastern and Southern Africa: a longitudinal analysis of social listening data - During the COVID-19 pandemic, social listening programs across digital channels have become an integral part of health preparedness and response planning, allowing to capture and address questions, information needs, and misinformation shared by users. This study identifies key social listening trends around COVID-19 vaccines in Eastern and Southern Africa and analyzes how online conversations about this issue evolved over time.
• The evolution of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from panel survey data - COVID-19 vaccination efforts are lagging in Sub-Saharan Africa, as just over 20 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is considered important as a prerequisite for widespread vaccine take-up. Here, the dynamics of vaccine acceptance, its correlates, and reasons for hesitancy over time are studied, drawing on two years of panel survey data in five countries in East and West Africa (Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda).
• Social network analysis of COVID-19 vaccine YouTube videos in Odisha, India: mapping the channel network and analyzing comment sentiment - This study in a real-world setting utilizes YouTube videos in Odisha, India where the platform has deep penetration among the 18–35 target population, and secondarily their family and peers. Two contrasting videos were launched on the YouTube platform to examine how those videos operate within the broader recommender and subscription systems that determine the audience reach.
• Measuring behavioral and social drivers of COVID-19 vaccination in health workers in Eastern and Southern Africa - In 2021, twenty out of twenty-one countries in the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) region introduced COVID-19 vaccines. With variable willingness to uptake vaccines across countries, the aim of the present study was to better understand factors that impact behavioral and social drivers of vaccination (BeSD). Using the theory-based “increasing vaccination model”, the drivers Thinking & Feeling, Social Processes, Motivation, and Practical Issues were adapted to the COVID-19 context and utilized in a cross-country assessment.
• Community centred co-design methodology for designing and implementing socio-behavioural interventions to counter COVID-19 related misinformation among marginalized population living in the squatter settlements of Karachi, Pakistan: a methodology paper - Misinformation regarding COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination is damaging COVID-19 vaccine trust and acceptance in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC). Identification of misinformation and designing locally acceptable solutions are needed to improve COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. This study aimed to utilize community-led co-design methodology to evaluate misinformation regarding COVID-19 and develop contextual interventions to address misinformation in a marginalized peri urban slum communities of Landhi town Karachi, Pakistan. One of the authors, Rubina Qasim (PK), is supported by Sabin's Social and Behavioral Research Grants Program.
• A novel adaptation of spatial interpolation methods to map health attitudes related to COVID-19 - Data on the determinants of vaccine hesitancy are scarce, and often available only at the national level. The goal of this paper is to inform programmatic decision making in support of local vaccine uptake. Our analytical objectives to support this goal are to (1) reliably estimate attitudinal data at the hyperlocal level, and (2) estimate the loss of data heterogeneity among these attitudinal indicators at higher levels of aggregation. With hyperlocal attitudinal data on the determinants of vaccine hesitancy, public health stakeholders can better tailor interventions aimed at increasing uptake sub-nationally, and even down to the individual vaccination site or neighborhood.

Access the full list of articles here!