Update

2022 Mid-Year Review

The first half of 2022 has been incredibly busy for the Boost Community. Below, we invite you to learn more about key Boost Community initiatives, courses, webinars, and opportunities from the first half of the year, and access links to more information and important resources.

Highlights

Mass Vaccination Collaborative

The Global Mass Vaccination Site Collaborative (GMVSC), a joint initiative hosted by the Sabin Vaccine Institute’s Boost Community and Ariadne Labs, launched at the end of 2021 and took off in the first months of 2022. GMVSC supported immunization professionals as they planned for and began operationalizing mass vaccination sites in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Though the series of 12 live engagements for immunization professionals worldwide to discuss operational aspects of mass vaccination sites and share best practices across countries and communities concluded in May 2022, the open-access website continues to provide more than 80 curated resources providing operational advice and best practices for setting up and maintaining mass vaccination sites, as well as practical tools that can be directly used for implementation.

In addition, you can still join the Global Mass Vaccination Site Collaborative Learning Group on the Boost Community platform to connect with and learn from other immunization professionals involved with planning and implementing mass vaccination sites.

COVID-19 Listening & Learning Series

The COVID-19 Listening & Learning series has provided insights from the frontlines of COVID-19 vaccination sites around the globe as well as brought together experts to answer Boost community questions. In April and May 2022, Boost hosted COVID-19 Listening and Learning Sessions 6 and 7. Session 6 focused on Vaccine Demand Planning and Product Choices and Session 7 focused on Advocating and Accessing Demand Generation Financing.

In addition, the Boost Community also launched an accompanying COVID-19 Listening & Learning podcast. Six episodes are currently available on the Boost website, or via your favorite podcast platform such as Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Gaana, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or Audible. In May 2022, Episode 6: COVID-19 Response in West and Central Africa was released. In this episode, World Health Organization (WHO) officers share the ways West African countries learned, embraced new strategies and pivoted in order to be effective in ensuring widespread vaccination for COVID-19.

Bright Spots & Sparks

The Bright Spots & Sparks storytelling initiative has been ongoing since 2019, with the goal to shine a light on voices of innovation and adaptability in the immunization sector, surfacing different aspects of immunization campaigns and programs: from sharing fully executed projects with successful results to highlighting quick lessons learned from the field. In the first part of 2022, several additions to the Bright Spots & Sparks Initiative were released:

Bright Spots

Restoring Confidence in Immunization During COVID-19 (Bangladesh) – In this story, Dr. Tanvir Hossen, Deputy Program Manager, EPI & Surveillance, Expanded Program on Immunization, in Bangladesh, shares insights into how he and his team worked tirelessly to keep their country’s immunization system up and running to achieve remarkable coverage after a sharp decline in May 2020.
The Twenty-Year Road to Ending Cervical Cancer in China – In this story, You-lin Qiao, MD, PhD, Professor & Director of Center for Global Health, Chinese Academy of Medical Science/Peking Union Medical College, shares his journey to advance HPV vaccine access, demand, and uptake.
Leveraging the Power of Storytelling to Increase Vaccine Demand (Nigeria) – In this story, Geraldine Mbagwu, Programme Officer with Corona Management Systems, shares the story of advancing vaccine demand through the Community Theatre for Immunisation Project in Bayelsa and Rivers States in Nigeria.
Geospatial Data – Unlocking the Unseen (Nigeria) – in this story, Roqeebah Olaoniye, Communication Specialist at GRID3, shared how geospatial insights and technologies are being used by the Federal Government of Nigeria to improve response strategies and provide timely and effective last-mile delivery of COVID-19.
Tikakaran Chakra: A Tool to Increase Awareness on Timely Vaccination (India) – In this story, Mehak Bhatia of CHAI, shares how the Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP), in partnership with Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), devised an innovative immunization wheel tool for improving the communication capacity of the frontline workers that in turn enhanced demand for routine immunization.
Supporting Vaccination Efforts through Geospatial Solutions (Zambia) – in this story, GRID3 Communications Officer Chisimdi Onwuteaka shares how geospatial data has bridged information gaps in Zambia and informed health planning efforts.

Sparks

EPI LAMP Breakthrough Project (Uganda) – In this Spark, the EPI LAMP Uganda team dives into their breakthrough project, which used a comparison district to analyze how to improve measles-rubella coverage in Bukomansimbi, one of the lowest covered districts in Uganda.
Reaching Remote Communities Through Community Dialogues (Nigeria) – In this Spark, Ismaila Ibrahim Edego, an immunization expert who specializes in vaccine campaigns that reach underserved communities across Kaduna State, Nigeria, discusses some of his experiences conducting community sensitization sessions, including consistent challenges that arise through these dialogues.
Animated Video on Resuming Immunization Sessions during COVID-19 (India) – In this Spark, a team from the Clinton Health Access Initiative based in Madhya Pradesh, India share about their collaborative efforts in creating an animated film that assists with strengthening routine immunization during COVID-19 and beyond.

Insights Dialogue

Insights Dialogue is an initiative of the Alliance for Advancing Health Online (AAHO) designed to share research and evidence on how to best use social media and digital platforms to address vaccine confidence with vaccine program implementers, public health communicators, behavior change scientists and other stakeholders. Sabin Vaccine Institute and Bay Area Global Health Alliance have partnered to curate research insights and bring the latest evidence and how-tos to vaccine program implementers, public health communicators, behavior change scientists and other stakeholders through live webinars and podcast episodes.

So far in 2022, Insights Dialogue has held several webinars, the recordings of which are available to watch:

Social Media Listening for Improved Vaccine Acceptance – In this webinar, global health and communications experts discussed how 19 to Zero and the Minority Rights Group’s Diversity: Impact on Vaccine Equality (DIVE) project used data from social listening to improve efforts to drive vaccine confidence and access and shared tools and resources designed to help you implement and use social listening data in your own work.
Vaccine Chatbots: The role of AI in driving demand – This Insights Dialogue event on March 24 explored how chatbots and artificial intelligence have contributed to the global fight against COVID-19 vaccine misinformation.
Empowering Community Voices to Promote Vaccine Confidence through Social Media – The Insights Dialogue event on April 20 shared three approaches to incorporating community voices into social media messaging and discussed best practices for leveraging and amplifying their impact.
Building Vaccine Confidence for Adolescents and Youth – The Insights Dialogue event on May 17 explored effective ways to reach adolescents and youth to build vaccine confidence and drive uptake.

In addition, two episodes of the Vax Up Podcast were released in the first half of 2022:

Maya Health Alliance Reaches Indigenous Guatemalan Communities and ImmUNITY Chicago – An Innovative Partnership in Digital and Traditional Vaccine Outreach.

Behavioral Science – Immunization Network

The Behavioral Science for Immunization Network is a group of more than 700 immunization practitioners and social and behavioral science experts exploring how to apply behavioral science tools, methods and approaches to the delivery of immunization activities. By creating space to disseminate effective practices, curating learnings, and connecting immunization professionals with behavioral science experts, the BeSIN enables participants to design, implement and evaluate behavioral interventions to increase vaccine acceptance and uptake. BeSIN held three events during the first half of 2022:

February 2022: Behavioral Science: Practical Applications to Immunization – In this inaugural network event, participants learned about behavioral science and its application to immunization programs and explored how behavioral science interventions have been used to solve challenges related to immunization programming in different contexts.
June 14, 2022: Social Listening: Strategies & Traps – In this webinar, experts shared information and strategies for incorporating social listening to inform your work.
June 21, 2022: Ask the Experts: Human-Centred Design for Tailoring Immunization Programmes – In this webinar, experts answer questions about human-centred design for tailoring immunization programmes (HCD-TIP), a new tool that can be used by all immunization professionals to diagnose barriers to vaccine uptake and co-design solutions that meet community needs.