New Brunswick, N.J. (Sept. 17, 2020) – Rutgers University–New Brunswick Professor William Hallman is available for interviews on how to communicate with the public about a potential COVID-19 vaccine.
“For a COVID-19 vaccine to be embraced by the public, officials can’t rely on a one-size-fits-all message,” according to Hallman, an experimental psychologist who is a Rutgers Global Health Institute core faculty member and chairs the Department of Human Ecology in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.
Although scientists are still working toward reliable answers, now is the time for health officials to plan how information will be communicated to the public once a COVID-19 vaccine is ready, according to Hallman, who uses scientific research to explore human behavior. Public health leaders should be investigating the use of communication strategies and tactics that will contribute to vaccine uptake, he said.
“There’s a lot more to getting people to act than simply telling them the facts. A communication science approach would involve initial research – for example, looking at data from past vaccination rollouts and conducting surveys or focus groups – to understand what people in different populations know, or think they know, and what they want to know about COVID-19 and vaccines,” said Hallman. “Then researchers could test different types of messages based on that information, collect and interpret the audience’s feedback and design and target the COVID-19 vaccine communications accordingly. It won’t be perfect, but it’s a way to anticipate and to address the ‘Yeah, but what about…?’ questions right from the start.”
Hallman is available to comment at hallman@sebs.rutgers.edu or 848-932-9227.
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