Article
Listen deeply, respond smartly
An innovative approach for encouraging population immunity to COVID-19
Even though the pandemic lingers, with new cases of infection reported every day, many Canadians remain indecisive about getting vaccinated against COVID-19. Why are they still hesitant? Understanding this is critical to moving past the crisis.
For our new report, Listen deeply, respond smartly: An innovative approach for encouraging population immunity to COVID-19, we collected and analyzed 1.7 million social media mentions about vaccines made in Canada and held in-depth interviews with Canadians across the country. This enabled us to gain insight into the factors that are shaping the perspectives of the vaccine-hesitant and identify solutions.
Listen deeply, respond smartly sheds light on:
- The enormous challenge of counteracting social media negativity, misinformation, and disinformation.
- How a sense of fear and loss is turning people inward.
- The two dominant mindsets that result in vaccine hesitancy
- How to appeal to the vaccine-hesitant (or other groups of concern) with more customized approaches
People are trying to make sense of COVID-19 vaccines and what they should do. What we learned can help governments, health-care bodies, and the private sector to see how to encourage their constituents to get inoculated—since the more of us are protected against the disease, the sooner the pandemic can end.