Activity for the Session on Immunization Programs

Read the article “Facts alone don't sway anti-vaxxers. So what does?” by Alia E. Dastagir published in USA TODAY on Dec 17th , 2019 https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2019/03/08/vaccine-anti-vax-anti-vaxxer-what-change-their-mind-vaccine-hesitancy/3100216002/ Now in pairs or groups of three play this scenario [you can do online collaborative writting if you cannot/wish to meet using your mdx OneDrive account]: You are part of the public health team in the Haringey borough of London. Haringey population was 270,624 in 2018. The latest report on MMR coverage has reached you and it shows a drop in vaccine coverage from 95% last year to 85%.

1. Describe how would you investigate the causes of the 10% drop in one year

In order to investigate the sudden drop in MMR vaccine, interview of selected individuals from the population who have no participated in vaccinating their kids are to be done. This is because interview helps to develop clarified and detailed information regarding the opinion and perspective of individuals regarding a certain topic (Tan et al. 2017). Thus, the interview would help to understand key reasons behind the drop in MMR rates. Moreover, the survey is to be organised within the Haringey area based in the interview to determine the key objective reasons behind the sudden drop of vaccination in the year. The survey is t be executed as it is cost-effective and low time-consuming method to collect huge data from wide amount of participants (Zavyalova et al. 2019). The survey questionnaires are to be close-ended and interview questionnaires are to be semi-structured. According to reports, nearly 30% of people in Harington does not speak English as key language (haringey.gov.uk, 2019). Therefore, the interview and survey questionnaires are to be published in English and another 3 common languages spoken in Harington to gather data so that all the individuals understand the questions and provide proper reply to allow enriched information to the gathered.

2. Describe what would you suggest in your team that should be done

The article by Dastagir (2019) informed that use of proper empathy, the involvement of paediatricians, showcasing of evidence and arguments from similar people who share the same identity with anti-vaxx group are to be used for influencing parents to vaccinate their children. This led to suggest the team of allocating paediatrician in the Haringey area to communicate with anti-vaxx ideals people in influencing them to avoid the thinking and accept vaccination of their children. In addition, the team is suggested to put up poster and share leaflets in the area where true stories with visual images regarding the risk of not vaccinating are to be informed. This is because the risk related by true facts would aware anti-vaxx people to understand the risk they are creating for their children, in turn, making them change their opinion in vaccinating them (Laura et al. 2018). The team is also suggested to show empathy during communication with anti-vaxx people to show they understand their situation and require to have patience in communicating the facts rather than forcing the anti-vaxx people to accept the information about the risk of not vaccinating.

References:

Dastagir. E., 2019, Facts alone don't sway anti-vaxxers. So what does?, Available at: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2019/03/08/vaccine-anti-vax-anti-vaxxer-what-change-their-mind-vaccine-hesitancy/3100216002/ [Accessed on: 25th March 2020] haringey.gov.uk 2019, Haringey at a glance, Available at: https://www.haringey.gov.uk/sites/haringeygovuk/files/state_of_the_borough_final_master_version.pdf [Accessed on: 25th March 2020] Laura, J., Tarunjose, K., Angelina, K., Mojisola, O., Enisa, S., Valentine, V., Fleur, V., Lise, B. and Corinne, V., 2018. How Storytelling Can Combat Vaccine Hesitancy: a Transdisciplinary Approach. Transdisciplinary Insights, 2(1), pp.92-103. Tan, Z., Liu, X., Liu, X., Cheng, Q. and Zhu, T., 2017. Designing microblog direct messages to engage social media users with suicide ideation: interview and survey study on Weibo. Journal of medical Internet research, 19(12), p.e381. Zavyalova, N., Kolmakov, V., Polyakova, A. and Zavyalov, D., 2019. Dataset on the interview-based survey of Moscow bicycle infrastructure. Data in brief, 26, p.104429.

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