Findings from a COVID-19 Vaccine Survey

• When it comes to determining if the COVID-19 vaccine is safe or not, consumers trust their doctors, health systems, and federal health officials more than anyone else.
• Hospitals will need to figure out if they require staff to get the vaccine before returning to work?
• Physicians must be involved in the system's external response to the COVID-19 vaccine and also their internal communications to increase adoption and credibility.
• Physicians and nurses agree that front-line healthcare workers should be the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available. Still, most people said (68%) that they'd rather not be in the first wave.
• Doctors and nurses are just as hesitant – and for the same reasons as consumers.
• Consumers worry that the first approved vaccine won't be safe, that it won't be useful, and that politics have compromised the process. Health systems must find a way to cut through the noise and provide specific reasons for why it's safe to receive the vaccination.

Groups to Prepare Specific Messaging for

• Three specific groups were shown in the survey that you need to prepare specific messaging for when it comes to increasing the vaccines adoption:
  1. Adopters (yes, I will take the vaccine right away)
  2. Skeptics (no, I will wait)
  3. Rebels (no, I don't plan to get the vaccine ever)
• From an external standpoint, prioritize the skeptic's group, but from an internal perspective (like physicians), focus on the rebel group.
• There needs to be a specific communication plan for each group, especially within the health systems.
• Telling everyone to get a vaccine is not that simple – it's deeper than that; it is phycological. To evoke change, we need to understand what moves people and incorporate that into our messaging.