COVID-19 Public Health Campaigns

 Our aim was to increase COVID-19 Vaccination uptake through social media public health campaigns in order to help communities most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A social media-based public health campaign to promote COVID-19 vaccine uptake with Physician Messaging

The goal of this campaign is to increase COVID-19 vaccination uptake across the US, with a specific focus on reaching underrepresented communities. This public health campaign was disseminated as Facebook ads, centered on a representative group of physicians conveying their own messages that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective. From April 9-30th, the videos appeared on Facebook newsfeeds 54.4 million times, reaching 9.9 million individuals an average of 5.5 times each.

-led by our Postdoctoral Fellow, Isabella de Vere Hunt, MD

Get Vaccinated! It is our way out of this pandemic!

Vacunese! Es neustra forma de salir de esta pandemia!

A social media-based public health campaign to promote COVID-19 vaccine uptake with Physician Messaging

The goal of this campaign is to increase COVID-19 vaccination uptake across the US, with a specific focus on reaching underrepresented communities. This public health campaign was disseminated as Facebook ads, centered on a representative group of physicians conveying their own messages that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective. From April 9-30th, the videos appeared on Facebook newsfeeds 54.4 million times, reaching 9.9 million individuals an average of 5.5 times each.

-led by our Postdoctoral Fellow, Isabella de Vere Hunt, MD

A social media-based public health campaign to promote COVID-19 vaccine uptake with Religious Leaders

We created a social-media based public health campaign utilizing faith-based messaging to increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake in faith groups across the US. Survey data collected by PRRI-IFYC (March 2021) indicates high rates of vaccine hesitancy in various religious groups across the US. Furthermore, it suggests that faith-based approaches to vaccine hesitancy could be a salient approach to shifting attitudes in individuals with strong attachments to religion. This campaign builds on earlier campaign efforts to promote COVID-19 vaccine uptake centered on messages delivered by physicians.

-led by our Postdoctoral Fellow, Isabella de Vere Hunt, MD

 The first part of our COVID-19 Vaccine Access/Promotion Facebook Campaign were Still Images created by various artists. These still images were shown on Facebook feeds to targeted populations throughout the United States.

Each Facebook Ad also had a link leading to Shotline, which is a nonprofit organization which helps people get COVID-19 Vaccine appointments in English and Spanish through a phone call.

COVID-19 Publications

Moore RC, Lee A, Hancock JT, Halley M, Linos E. Experience with Social Distancing Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States: Implications for Public Health Messaging. Preprint. medRxiv. 2020;2020.04.08.20057067. Published 2020 Apr 11. doi:10.1101/2020.04.08.20057067

Nelson LM, Simard JF, Oluyomi A, et al. US Public Concerns About the COVID-19 Pandemic From Results of a Survey Given via Social Media. JAMA Intern Med. 2020;180(7):1020-1022. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.1369

Elser H, Kiang MV, John EM, et al. Implications of the COVID-19 San Francisco Bay Area Shelter-in-Place Announcement: A Cross-Sectional Social Media Survey. Preprint. medRxiv. 2020;2020.06.29.20143156. Published 2020 Jul 1. doi:10.1101/2020.06.29.20143156

Elser H, Kiang MV, John EM, et al. The Impact of the first COVID-19 shelter-in-place announcement on social distancing, difficulty in daily activities, and levels of concern in the San Francisco Bay Area: A cross-sectional social media survey. PLoS One. 2021;16(1):e0244819. Published 2021 Jan 14. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0244819

Moore RC, Lee AY, Hancock JT, Halley MC, Linos E. Age-Related Differences in Experiences With Social Distancing at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Computational and Content Analytic Investigation of Natural Language From a Social Media Survey. JMIR Hum Factors. 2021;8(2):e26043. Published 2021 Jun 9. doi:10.2196/26043

Halley MC, Mathews KS, Diamond LC, et al. The Intersection of Work and Home Challenges Faced by Physician Mothers During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A Mixed-Methods Analysis. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2021;30(4):514-524. doi:10.1089/jwh.2020.8964

For questions about this study, please contact Protocol Director Dr. Eleni Linos.

This study has been approved by Stanford IRB Protocol #55436 Participant’s rights questions, contact 1-866-680-2906