As New Variants of the Coronavirus Emerge, Reaching the Vaccine-Hesitant Takes on New Urgency
Feature Story
By Dara Shefska
Last update February 4, 2022
In recent weeks, the omicron variant has exploded in the U.S. and other parts of the world. Its disproportionate and sometimes devastating impacts on the unvaccinated — and the possibility of new variants emerging in the future — have made efforts to reach individuals who are not vaccinated yet even more urgent.
Throughout the pandemic, the Societal Experts Action Network (SEAN) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has used principles from social psychology, anthropology, risk communication, and decision science to inform strategies for communicating about the COVID-19 vaccines, reaching people who are hesitant about the vaccines, and building their confidence in the shot. How can this knowledge from the social sciences be applied in light of omicron, and to decisions we make about future variants?
Changing Circumstances, Managing Expectations
Public health professionals have asked a great deal of the public over the last two years, said Kasisomayajula Viswanath, Lee Kum Kee Professor of Health Communication at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and co-author of a recent SEAN consultation on communicating about vaccines. “We’ve asked people to wear masks, keep their children home from school, not go to restaurants … People are hitting a ceiling of how much disruption they can tolerate and for how long.” While these disruptions were originally promised to be short lived, they are continuing into their third year, said Viswanath. “And that can contribute to an erosion of credibility for public officials.”
In the face of uncertainty and changing information, managing expectations becomes paramount. Avoiding overpromising or speculating is a key task for public communicators in evolving situations, said Viswanath. Walking back past statements, he explained, can damage a public official’s credibility.
However, changing circumstances can also present new opportunities for changing minds. The SEAN consultation says that new developments in the pandemic such as the emergence of omicron provide new opportunities for reassessment of previously held positions. Trying to convince people with negative reasoning — saying “you are wrong, now do the right thing” — is unlikely to be successful because it interferes with people’s perception of themselves as good decision-makers. Instead, highlighting new and relevant information, such as the rise of the omicron variant and the risks it poses, can help individuals unmoor themselves from previously held positions.
The Right Message for the Right Audience
The way that vaccine information is acted upon can depend on who is making the decision and what information is presented to them, according to the SEAN consultation. Information on trends can also be a motivator for receiving the vaccine, because people often look to the actions of others to determine the most socially acceptable behavior in a given situation. In the case of vaccination, highlighting trend data, rather than overall numbers of people who have been vaccinated, may draw upon this phenomenon and encourage individuals to get vaccinated. For example, saying “the amount of people in our community who have received the vaccine has doubled” may be more impactful than listing the total number of vaccinated individuals.
For parents, highlighting the importance of vaccinating their individual child may be more salient, according to Emily K. Brunson, professor of medical anthropology at Texas State University, who spoke at a recent webinar about the SEAN guidance. “Parents are personalizing [public health information] for their children,” said Brunson. “Talk about their child in relation to COVID or in relation to vaccination, instead of giving population-level numbers.”
An ‘Overwhelming’ Information Environment
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been bombarded with an “overwhelming” amount of information, Viswanath said. And this abundance could influence how new information is processed and acted upon.
“People are processing this information in addition to whatever is happening in their lives in terms of stressors … like fear of being laid off, not having insurance, not having the internet bandwidth [to support children’s remote learning],” said Viswanath. “These factors have a tremendous impact on how health information is accessed, assessed, and acted upon. And we need to understand this larger context better to design our strategies.”
