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1 – 10 of over 1000Tina Comes, Kristin Bergtora Sandvik and Bartel Van de Walle
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how far technology and information enable, facilitate or support the planning and implementation decisions in humanitarian vaccine cold…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how far technology and information enable, facilitate or support the planning and implementation decisions in humanitarian vaccine cold chains for vaccination campaigns. The authors specifically focus on three emerging technologies that have the potential to create more flexible conditions in the field, and identify the need to further explore the link between uncertainty, information and irreversibility.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors present a basic structure for the analysis of cold chain disruptions in terms of three distinct yet connected layers of deficient infrastructure and capacity, information gaps and failures in decision making. The authors then review three humanitarian technologies and their impact on vaccine campaigns along these layers. From there, a research agenda is developed to address research gaps this review brought forward.
Findings
Three critical research gaps in the areas of technology innovation for humanitarian vaccine cold chain management are presented. The authors argue that technology to improve capacity, information and decisions need to be aligned, and that the areas of uncertainty, information and irreversibility require further investigation to achieve this alignment. In this way, the paper contributes to setting the research agenda on vaccine cold chains and connects humanitarian logistics to technology, information management and decision making.
Originality/value
This paper presents the humanitarian vaccine cold chain problem from an original angle by illuminating the implications of technology and information on the decisions made during the planning and implementation phases of a vaccine campaign. The authors develop an agenda to provide researchers and humanitarians with a perspective to improve cold chain planning and implementation at the intersection of technology, information and decisions.
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Jaylan Azer and Matthew Alexander
COVID-19 vaccinations face a backdrop of widespread mistrust in their safety and effectiveness, specifically via social media platforms which constitute major barriers for the…
Abstract
Purpose
COVID-19 vaccinations face a backdrop of widespread mistrust in their safety and effectiveness, specifically via social media platforms which constitute major barriers for the public health sector to manage COVID-19 (and future) pandemics. This study provides a more nuanced understanding of the public's engagement behavior toward COVID-19 vaccinations.
Design/methodology/approach
Using Netnography, this study explores the public's interactions with vaccine communications by the WHO via Facebook. From WHO posts about the COVID-19 vaccination 23,726 public comments on Facebook were extracted and analyzed.
Findings
Building on crisis communication, health and engagement literature, this paper identifies and conceptualizes seven patterns of engagement behavior toward the COVID-19 vaccination and develops the first framework of relationships between these patterns and the extant vaccine attitudes: vaccine acceptance, hesitancy and refusal.
Practical implications
This paper helps policymakers identify and adapt interventions that increase vaccine confidence and tailor public health services communications accordingly.
Originality/value
This research offers the first typology of patterns of engagement behavior toward COVID-19 vaccinations and develops a framework of relationships between these patterns and the existing understanding in health literature. Finally, the study provides data-driven communication recommendations to public health service organizations.
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Rachel X. Peng and Ryan Yang Wang
As public health professionals strive to promote vaccines for inoculation efforts, fervent anti-vaccination movements are marshaling against it. This study is motived by a need…
Abstract
Purpose
As public health professionals strive to promote vaccines for inoculation efforts, fervent anti-vaccination movements are marshaling against it. This study is motived by a need to better understand the online discussion around vaccination. The authors identified the sentiments, emotions and topics of pro- and anti-vaxxers’ tweets, investigated their change since the pandemic started and further examined the associations between these content features and audiences’ engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilizing a snowball sampling method, data were collected from the Twitter accounts of 100 pro-vaxxers (266,680 tweets) and 100 anti-vaxxers (248,425 tweets). The authors are adopting a zero-shot machine learning algorithm with a pre-trained transformer-based model for sentiment analysis and structural topic modeling to extract the topics. And the authors use the hurdle negative binomial model to test the relationships among sentiment/emotion, topics and engagement.
Findings
In general, pro-vaxxers used more positive tones and more emotions of joy in their tweets, while anti-vaxxers utilized more negative terms. The cues of sadness predominantly encourage retweets across the pro- and anti-vaccine corpus, while tweets amplifying the emotion of surprise are more attention-grabbing and getting more likes. Topic modeling of tweets yields the top 15 topics for pro- and anti-vaxxers separately. Among the pro-vaxxers’ tweets, the topics of “Child protection” and “COVID-19 situation” are positively predicting audiences’ engagement. For anti-vaxxers, the topics of “Supporting Trump,” “Injured children,” “COVID-19 situation,” “Media propaganda” and “Community building” are more appealing to audiences.
Originality/value
This study utilizes social media data and a state-of-art machine learning algorithm to generate insights into the development of emotionally appealing content and effective vaccine promotion strategies while combating coronavirus disease 2019 and moving toward a global recovery.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-03-2022-0186
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Maria Gabaldon-Parish and Kate Cartwright
Across the United States (US), COVID-19 vaccination coverage was lower in rural counties compared to urban counties, exacerbating rural health inequities. While rural communities…
Abstract
Purpose
Across the United States (US), COVID-19 vaccination coverage was lower in rural counties compared to urban counties, exacerbating rural health inequities. While rural communities fall short of the public health goal to vaccinate all who are eligible, most rural residents have chosen to vaccinate for COVID-19. The aim of this study was to better understand rural New Mexicans' attitudes and beliefs about COVID-19 vaccines.
Methodology
We conducted and analyzed 51 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with adults living in rural New Mexican counties, covering a range of topics related to the pandemic, including vaccines. These interviews were conducted in the Summer of 2021 after the vaccines were widely available to all adults over the age of 18 and youth between the ages of 12–17, but not yet available for children under 12 years.
Findings
Two major perspectives were identified: (1) the idea that COVID-19 vaccinations are a tool that individuals can use to achieve freedom and protection and (2) the view which regarded vaccines as an infringement of personal rights and one's autonomy of health. For people who viewed the vaccine as a tool for freedom, several themes emerged, including (1) a preference for vaccine manufacturers, specifically a preference for Pfizer, and (2) frustrations related to vaccine access, specifically, older adults expressed frustrations with the difficulty of scheduling vaccination appointments. However, most participants felt as though they had enough vaccination resources. For people who viewed vaccines (and vaccine mandates) as limiting their freedom, additional themes emerged: (1) overarching distrust of government and the perception that vaccines were an extension of government and (2) distrust in the vaccines themselves, including a perceived lack of research on the vaccines and a perception that the vaccine was developed in too short of a period. Some of the people who hold these beliefs are also vaccinated. We draw from social psychology theories to better understand how people who hold a rural identity come to establish different beliefs and practices compared to larger metropolitan regions. While political identity is a contributor, of our participants, the group who were most likely to report not being vaccinated were the “independent” or “unaffiliated voters.” Our findings can help craft culturally responsive vaccine initiatives for rural communities.
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Youjin Jang, Monique Mitchell Turner, Ruth Jinhee Heo and Rachel Barry
This study aims to use the anger activism model as an audience segmentation tool in the context of the anti-vaccination movement.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to use the anger activism model as an audience segmentation tool in the context of the anti-vaccination movement.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a national purposive sample (N = 438).
Findings
The group with high anger, strong efficacy (i.e. “activists”) was found to be more likely to engage in information seeking and was more accurate and defense-motivated when examining information about anti-vaxxers compared to other groups. Importantly, activists were more likely to engage in both low and high commitment behaviors to change vaccine policy.
Originality/value
As anti-vaxxers have proven to be difficult to change attitudinally, future campaigns are more likely to succeed if they leverage pro-vaccine audiences to fight for change. However, the understanding of the various segments within the pro-vaccination audience is limited. The data are discussed regarding leveraging high anger, strong efficacy audiences as change agents in future persuasive campaigns.
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Vinit Kumar, Gopal Ji, Maya Deori and Manoj Kumar Verma
Vaccine hesitancy is a long-standing issue among both the general population and health communicators. This study aims to ascertain the inclination and the reasons for vaccine…
Abstract
Purpose
Vaccine hesitancy is a long-standing issue among both the general population and health communicators. This study aims to ascertain the inclination and the reasons for vaccine hesitancy by conducting content analysis and sentiment analysis of the perspectives expressed in comments on videos related to vaccine hesitancy uploaded from India on YouTube.
Design/methodology/approach
The assessment of the sentiments of the vaccine-hesitant population is done using Valence Aware Dictionary and sEntiment Reasoner sentiment analysis module implemented with Python’s NLTK library to automatically determine the sentiments of the comments. Manual content analysis was performed on 60.09% viewer comments randomly selected from the total comments in 238 videos on vaccine hesitancy originated from India and labelled each comment with labels “Anti”, “Pro”, “Confused”, “Not Applicable” and “Unrelated” labels.
Findings
The study found “Mistrust-Government policies”, “Fear-health related consequences”, “Mistrust-Scientific research”, “Vaccine effectiveness and efficacy” and “Misinformation/myths” as the top five determinants for vaccine hesitancy, whereas “Religious beliefs”, “Fear-Economic consequences”, “Side Effects- short-term” and “Fear-mode of administration” found to be the lesser cited reasons for vaccine hesitancy. However, the study also investigates changes in the inclination of Indian commenters towards vaccine hesitancy and revolving issues over time.
Social implications
Public health policymakers and health communicators may find the study useful in determining vaccine hesitancy factors in India.
Originality/value
The originality of this study lies in its approach. To date, no sentiment analysis has been conducted on the content released on YouTube by Indian content creators regarding pro- and anti-vaccination videos. This inquiry seeks to fill this research gap.
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Amit Kumar Yadav and Dinesh Kumar
Each individual needs to be vaccinated to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the shortest possible time. However, the vaccine distribution with an already strained…
Abstract
Purpose
Each individual needs to be vaccinated to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the shortest possible time. However, the vaccine distribution with an already strained supply chain in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) will not be effective enough to vaccinate all the population in stipulated time. The purpose of this paper is to show that there is a need to revolutionize the vaccine supply chain (VSC) by overcoming the challenges of sustainable vaccine distribution.
Design/methodology/approach
An integrated lean, agile and green (LAG) framework is proposed to overcome the challenges of the sustainable vaccine supply chain (SVSC). A hybrid best worst method (BWM)–Measurement of Alternatives and Ranking According to COmpromise Solution (MARCOS) methodology is designed to analyze the challenges and solutions.
Findings
The analysis shows that vaccine wastage is the most critical challenge for SVSC, and the coordination among stakeholders is the most significant solution followed by effective management support.
Social implications
The result of the analysis can help the health care organizations (HCOs) to manage the VSC. The effective vaccination in stipulated time will help control the further spread of the virus, which will result in the normalcy of business and availability of livelihood for millions of people.
Originality/value
To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first study to explore sustainability in VSC by considering the environmental and social impact of vaccination. The LAG-based framework is also a new approach in VSC to find the solution for existing challenges.
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Ellen Martin, Naomi Senior, Ammar Abdullah, Janine Brown, Suzanne Collings, Sophie Racktoo, Sarah Walpole, Moez Zeiton and Catherine Heffernan
The aim of this small‐scale focus group study is to explore the impact the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine has on attitudes towards HPV, cervical cancer and sexual risk taking…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this small‐scale focus group study is to explore the impact the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine has on attitudes towards HPV, cervical cancer and sexual risk taking amongst university students in the UK.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants were recruited through advertisements placed on notice boards throughout the campus of the University of Leeds. The study sampled purposively to obtain two groups of ten men and two groups of ten women. A total of 34 people attended the sessions. The missing participants gave no reason for the absence. Those who agreed to take part were aged 19‐24 and were from a range of academic courses. Ethical approval was sought and approved by the Medical School Ethics Committee at the University of Leeds.
Findings
Participants saw HPV as being distinct from genital warts. This led to a duality in their view of the vaccine, which they saw as a cancer vaccine for schoolgirls and as an STI vaccine in relation to people of their own age, and thus believed it would cause sexual complacency among young adults. There was a fear that the HPV vaccine would reinforce gender bias, reinforcing the idea that females are responsible for sexual health. They maintained that mass media campaigns were more effective than sex education for improving sexual health knowledge and practices.
Originality/value
With the exception of chlamydia screening, this age group tends to be ignored in sexual health promotion campaigns. This small‐scale study provides insights that can inform larger studies and help tailor future health education campaigns on HPV for this audience.
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Beth Sundstrom, Heather M. Brandt, Lisa Gray and Jennifer Young Pierce
Cervical cancer (CxCa) incidence and mortality remain unacceptably high in South Carolina, USA, presenting an ideal opportunity for intervention. To address this need, Cervical…
Abstract
Purpose
Cervical cancer (CxCa) incidence and mortality remain unacceptably high in South Carolina, USA, presenting an ideal opportunity for intervention. To address this need, Cervical Cancer-Free South Carolina developed an academic-community partnership with researchers and students at a public university to design, implement, and evaluate a theory-based CxCa communication campaign, It’s My Time. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The goal of this campaign was to decrease CxCa by increasing human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and appropriate screening. This paper describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a successful theory-based CxCa prevention communication campaign for college women based on formative audience research and targeted messages delivered to audience segments through new and traditional communication channels. The health belief model (HBM) served as a theoretical framework for the campaign throughout development, implementation, and evaluation.
Findings
This campaign demonstrated the effectiveness of the HBM to address CxCa prevention, including HPV vaccine acceptability. The campaign aimed to increase perceptions of susceptibility, which were low, by emphasizing that HPV is a sexually transmitted infection. A community-based grassroots approach to addressing disparities in CxCa prevention increased benefits and decreased barriers. Social media emerged as a particularly appropriate platform to disseminate cues to action. In total, 60 percent of participants who responded to an anonymous web-based survey evaluation indicated that they received the HPV vaccine as a result of campaign messages.
Originality/value
This paper offers practical suggestions to campaign planners about building academic-community partnerships to develop theory-based communication campaigns that include conducting formative research, segmenting target audiences, engaging with young people, and incorporating social media.
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In January 2021, India launched the world’s most extensive vaccination campaign against COVID-19. It is estimated that India would need to vaccinate over a billion people to…
Abstract
Purpose
In January 2021, India launched the world’s most extensive vaccination campaign against COVID-19. It is estimated that India would need to vaccinate over a billion people to achieve herd immunity. Even though the Indian Government focuses on improving and delivering its vaccination programme, significant challenges still exist. This paper aims to discuss current challenges to scale up India’s vaccination campaign and addresses strategies for achieving this.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a review of secondary sources, including journal articles from scholarly and grey literature and information available in the public domain. The search focused explicitly on the COVID-19 scenario, vaccination programme, public health management and systems leadership in the Indian health care system.
Findings
The analysis revealed that various factors have disrupted India’s vaccination campaign, including shortage of vaccine doses, mandatory prior online registration, lack of infrastructure, safety concerns for older people, untrained workforce and absence of a solid public health framework. Furthermore, India appears to have struggled to reduce tensions and instill trust in its ability to effectively manage the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination programme due to a lack of cooperation between union government, state governments and other stakeholders, namely, policymakers, hospitals, industry and community.
Originality/value
The findings indicate that scaling up India’s anti-COVID vaccination programme would require system-level leadership strategies that work within the country’s limited resources. Deeper reforms in vaccine development, storage, delivery, training and regulatory frameworks are also needed to extend the world’s largest anti-COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
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