As the general public waits to get access to the COVID-19 vaccines, plans are underway to launch a vaccine literacy program early next year.
Led by faculty members at the Wegmans School of Pharmacy at St. John Fisher College, the yearlong educational campaign will focus on dispelling myths and misinformation about immunizations. The program is funded by a $20,000 grant from the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.
Ramil Sapinoro, associate professor of pharmaceutical science at St. John Fisher College, said mistrust and misconceptions of vaccines in general have spilled over to specific concerns about the new COVID-19 vaccines, partly because of the speed with which they were developed.
"There is a lot out there that the public has to digest," he said, "I think it might be easier to digest some of the fears and hesitancy rather than trying to better understand the process of developing these vaccines and the process of finding their safety profiles."
Videos, digital content, social media-based materials and community forums will be used to present scientific facts in an easily digestible way and emphasize the importance of community immunity.
"We have to do this together in order to get to a better place overall," said Sapinoro, who expects the campaign to start within the first quarter of 2021.
With the help of nonprofit agencies and community health care centers, including Rochester Victory Alliance, Project Homeless Connect, Mary's Place, and the Anthony Jordan Health Center, the project will also specifically target ethically, racially, and socio-economically diverse populations.
"We don't want to reinvent the wheel," explained Sapinoro. "We just want to better collaborate with many of the organizations that are already doing things within the community."
Virtual town hall-style forums are being planned to cover topics including vaccine science, vaccine myths and misconceptions, childhood immunizations, and adult immunizations.
Sapinoro expects the first interactive session to take place sometime in March.
He said data will be collected in an attempt to determine whether the program is successful in changing behaviors.