Community Conversations on Vaccines Episode 11

Dr. Anant Bhan and Dr. Kate Hopkins reflect on UNGA and discuss long-term strategies for boosting vaccine confidence.

Sabin Vaccine Institute’s Community Conversations on Vaccines, presented by Immunization Advocates, explores issues related to vaccines and immunization in low and middle-income countries through discussions with close-to-community professionals, including health workers, journalists, and researchers.

Co-hosts Vince Blaser and Francesca Montalto are joined in New York City on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) by Dr. Anant Bhan, mentor and principal investigator for Sangath in Bhopal, India and researcher in global health, health policy, and bioethics with over 18 years of experience and numerous publications to his name, and Dr. Kate Hopkins, Director of Research, Vaccine Acceptance & Demand at Sabin Vaccine Institute.

Anant Bhan reflects on marginalization, health equity, and access and addresses why decolonization, community perspectives, and lived experiences must contribute to the reform of building and sustaining vaccine acceptance and demand. Kate Hopkins reflects on multi-sectoral and multidisciplinary collaborative efforts to provide sustainable solutions toward vaccine acceptance.

If you want to learn more about Anant and Kate’s thoughts on sustainable approaches toward building and sustaining vaccine acceptance and demand, check out the key takeaways of this episode or the transcript.

Key Highlights:

• The Need for Multisectoral and Multidisciplinary Collaboration – It takes tremendous collaboration to save the world, something no person can do alone. Whether in discussions of primary healthcare systems or the production of vaccines, community involvement and co-design are essential to long-term solutions.
• The Role of Influencers in Checkmating Historical Mistrust – During the COVID-19 pandemic, some people in marginalized communities such as transgender individuals and people living with disabilities developed mistrust in vaccination due to structural inequities in access and engagement with health care; however, with the help of influential individuals, a healthy context can be rebuilt around proper information that can aid decision-making regarding vaccination.
• The Role of Community-based Participatory Approaches to Gaining Trust – To earn the community’s trust, it’s essential to work with them to find solutions rather than only conducting studies on them. By involving community influencers in the problem-solving process, communities are more likely to embrace the initiative that emerges and become champions of the solution.
• The Role of Transparency in Engaging with Communities – If messages from health systems don’t mention extremely rare negative instances, they can become controversial and spread through social media. They must be honest with the public about any potential safety or other issues in health interventions.

Connect with Our Guests

Connect with Dr. Anant Bhan on Twitter @AnantBhan. Learn more about Anant’s work:

• Tackling vaccine hesitancy challenge in rural India
• Ethical Issues and Regulatory Challenges. In Indian National Science Academy (Ed.). Host Immunity and Vaccines for COVID-19
• Acquiescence and submission to COVID-19 vaccination: ethics considerations

Learn more about Dr. Kate Hopkins’ work:

• Sabin’s New Director of Research Embraces Challenge of Global Vaccine Equity
• Sabin Welcomes 10 Partners to the 2021 Social and Behavioral Grants Program