Increasing confidence for pediatric COVID-19 and influenza vaccines using messages affirming parental autonomy: A randomized online experiment.

Objectives: To test the effects of autonomy-affirming pediatric vaccine messages for U.S. parents on overall vaccine confidence and intention to vaccinate against COVID-19 and flu while examining potential moderation effects of political ideology.

Fostering Trust in Public Health Messaging: Tailoring Communication for Rural Parents.

Purpose: As pandemic-related mistrust of public health recommendations in rural communities may compound gaps in pediatric immunizations, our team explored parents' perceptions of trustworthiness in messaging.

Design: Qualitative study using 4 virtual focus groups.

Setting: Rural Wisconsin.

Designing and testing social media campaign messages to promote COVID-19 vaccine confidence among rural adults: A community-engaged approach featuring rural community leader and clinician testimonials.

Despite the growing availability of effective COVID-19 vaccines in rural communities in the United States, widespread vaccine hesitancy delays COVID-19 vaccine coverage in rural communities and threatens to worsen pre-pandemic rural-urban disparities in other vaccination rates, including influenza and routine pediatric immunizations. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop communication-based interventions to improve vaccine confidence in rural America. This study demonstrates the efficacy of a community-engaged approach to developing social media campaign messages in promoting COVID-19 vaccine uptake and pro-vaccine social diffusion among rural adults.

Explaining the U.S. rural disadvantage in COVID-19 case and death rates during the Delta-Omicron surge: The role of politics, vaccinations, population health, and social determinants.

The Delta-Omicron wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (Wave 4) in the United States occurred in Fall of 2021 through Spring of 2022. Although vaccinations were widely available, this was the deadliest period to date in the U.S.