ATLANTA, Jan. 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ATLANTA –The Global Health Crisis Coordination Center (GHC3), a division of the Center for Global Health Innovation (CGHI), and their partners have completed the primary phases in the COvid Vaccines Information Equity and Demand creation (COVIED) project and plan to distribute their findings via the National Association of City and County Health Officers (NACCHO) COVID-19 Webinar Series on Tuesday, February 1st, 2022.
The COVIED project brought together academic, private, and public sector organizations to implement an innovative multistage, systematic process designed to identify susceptible populations in the U.S. who demonstrated COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and who were also most at risk for COVID-19 illness, hospitalization, and death. It aims to promote COVID vaccine uptake by providing tailored messaging and tools to those populations through community engagement and widespread message dissemination.
“This project was created to design and deliver COVID-19 vaccine information that is accurate, trusted, context-specific, and equally accessible for all communities and demographics,” said Dr. Robert Breiman, GHC3’s Chief Science Officer, Professor of Global Health and Infectious Diseases at Emory University and Project Director for COVIED. “Accurate information, delivered in the right way by known and trusted messengers leads to greater community-level vaccine acceptance, which reduces illness and saves lives.”
The COVIED project has been successfully implemented as part of GHC3’s community outreach in underserved and under-vaccinated communities. Edie Stringfellow, Vice President of Ecosystem Development at the Center for Global Health Innovation said, “Offering a communication strategy based on science has empowered the community leaders we work with and offered a relatable way for them to keep families safe and informed.” The next community health event will be held on January 28, 2022, at Slater Elementary School in Atlanta.
The COVIED-NACCHO webinar will promote the project objectives through a guided demonstration of project resources and tools, and by communicating where public health professionals, healthcare providers and the public can access and use these materials to enhance COVID-19 vaccine uptake in their communities.
The initiative was funded by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in partnership with the Task Force for Global Health. Key COVIED partners included GHC3, the Human Engagement Learning Platform Team at Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, the Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins University, the Prevention Research Center at Morehouse School of Medicine, the Georgia College Rural Studies Institute, the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), the RIWI Corp and The BLK + Cross. For more information on the COVIED project, visit https://globalhealthc3.org/vaccine-equity/.
About GHC3
The Global Health Crisis Coordination Center (GHC3), a division of the Center for Global Health Innovation, connects private sector resources to public sector and healthcare needs for COVID-19 and other healthcare crises around the globe. By harnessing the power of the private sector’s technology, logistics, and innovation, GHC3 is able to augment government response to high-priority challenges. For more information on GHC3, visit globalhealthc3.org.
About the COVIED Partners
GHC3, a division of the Center for Global Health Innovation, maintained primary oversight responsibility for project implementation. Dr. Robert Breiman, Emory University faculty and Chief Science Officer for GHC3 served as Program Director and Principal Investigator, and Dr. Daniel Salmon, Johns Hopkins University, and Drs. Walt Orenstein and Jim Lavery, both of Emory University, were Co-Principal Investigators. Dr. Lavery oversaw the rapid ethnography and stakeholder engagement activities, including the development of counter-narratives to address a variety of beliefs, concerns, and misinformation leading to vaccine hesitancy. Dr. Salmon led message development activities which included developing LetsTalkCovidVaccine, a website providing COVID-19 and COVID vaccine messaging tailored by language, race/ethnicity, population, and disease and vaccine attitudes and intentions. Additionally, the collaborative project involved the Prevention Research Center at Morehouse School of Medicine, the Georgia College Rural Studies Institute, the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), RIWI Corp, Blk+Cross, and the CDC Foundation. For more information on the COVIED project, visit https://globalhealthc3.org/vaccine-equity/.
