Abstract:
The availability of and access to COVID-19 vaccines has been challenging in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), coupled with mistrust in public health organizations instigated by misinformation and disinformation diffused by traditional and social media. In the Spring of 2021, the American University of Beirut (AUB) in Lebanon spearheaded a nationwide vaccination drive with the ambitious goal of vaccinating its entire community by the beginning of the academic year 2021-2022, as the campus was due to be opened only to vaccinated individuals. This case study outlines the development, implementation, and evaluation of a social marketing campaign to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations among members of the AUB community, comprising students, faculty, staff, and dependents. Following French and Evans\' 2020 guidelines, we implemented an evidence-based and co-designed strategy to maximize the availability and facilitate vaccine access. The campaign used a mix of methods to convince the segments of the population to receive their shots before accessing campus, resulting in a 98% uptake among the community segments within three months (July-September 2021). In this case study, we reflect on the experience and share suggestions for future research and applications that other higher education institutions could use to address similar problems.
摘要:
在许多低收入和中等收入国家,COVID-19疫苗的供应和获取一直面临挑战,再加上传统和社交媒体传播的错误信息和虚假信息引发的对公共卫生组织的不信任。2021年春季,黎巴嫩的贝鲁特美国大学(AUB)率先开展了全国性的疫苗接种活动,其宏伟目标是在2021-2022学年开始时为整个社区接种疫苗,因为校园将仅向接种疫苗的个人开放。这个案例研究概述了发展,实施,以及对鼓励AUB社区成员接种COVID-19疫苗的社会营销活动的评估,包括学生,教员,工作人员,和家属。遵循法国和埃文斯的2020年指导方针,我们实施了基于证据和共同设计的策略,以最大限度地提高疫苗的可用性并促进疫苗的获取.该运动使用了多种方法来说服人群在进入校园之前接受拍摄,在三个月内(2021年7月至9月),社区各部分人口占98%。在这个案例研究中,我们反思经验,并分享其他高等教育机构可用于解决类似问题的未来研究和应用建议。