GHLC at JHU: Dr. Tara Kirk Sell

Recording not currently publicly available

Dr. Tara Kirk Sell, Ph.D., Senior Scholar at the JHU Center for Health Security, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Health and Engineering

Responding to COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Misinformation:

Factors:

- Confidence

- Complacency

- Convenience

Infodemic:

Misinformation - information that is false in the scientific context of the time, often the result of ignorance and poor understanding

    - False cures

    - Mischaracterizing disease/cure

    - Scapegoating

    - Conspiracies

Disinformation - purposely created and disseminated falsehoods

Ways to check:

- Assess source credibility

- Review other content from the source

- Verify with other sources

- Be wary of emotion-invoking

- Understand your biases

Critical needs:

- Maintaining and building trust

- Engaging with identity

- Communicating uncertainty

Plan for action:

- Intervene against false and damaging content

- Promote and ensure dissemination of true information

- Increase the public's resilience to false information

- Inter-sector collaboration

Responding to people who believe false information:

- Respect

- Connect on values

- Talk about tactics

- Discuss alternatives

- Encourage verification

- Provide true information

When you come across false information:

- Don't repeat

- Report

- Limit engagement

- Provide true information

Building vaccine trust

- Understand, engage, trust

- Communication, motivate, nudges, patience

Building vaccine trust:

- Understand

- Engage

- Trust

- Communication

- Motivate

- Nudges

- Patience