“It’s Up to You” COVID-19 vaccine education campaign launches, aims to replace concern with confidence in getting vaccinated

A public service ad campaign…aims to convince Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19, telling them “It’s Up to You.”…The large, national campaign is producing an array of English and Spanish ads for TV, billboards, bus shelters, social media and publications…Although vaccines have been available…in the U.S. since mid-December, the timing of the ad campaign is actually good, said Jay Winsten, a Harvard University public health communications expert. It takes a while for people who question the effectiveness or safety of vaccines to gain faith in shots, said Winsten…it also helps that millions of Americans have already gotten shots, and they did not suffer serious side effects … Continue reading

Consistency is crucial: ‘You can’t have conflicting messages, as we have had in the current situation [with COVID-19] as a consequence of politics’ — Jay Winsten on “Weekend Edition”

Among the challenges for public health professionals: getting people to take precautions. Jay Winsten…the director of the Initiative on Communication Strategies for Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, says effective public health communication is crucial to get people to change their behavior … Continue reading