Research Project
10392010
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Worlds of Connections: Vaccine Hesitancy is motivated by the critical need to address public hesitancy toward vaccination for COVID-19. Our team, led by SEPA PI and sociologist Julia McQuillan, science educator Judy Diamond, and educator/medical sociologist Patricia Wonch Hill, build on their NIH- and NSF-funded virology outreach work to establish research-based practice for engaging the public with narrative comics designed to create positive attitudes toward vaccination while generating new knowledge about effective methods for public science outreach during a pandemic. Numerous factors?including family history, negative experience with medical institutions, distrust of vaccines?can contribute to reservations about vaccinations. No matter the reason, many people in the U.S. do not plan to take advantage of the opportunity to be vaccinated for COVID-19. With our team of professional researchers, artists, and educators, we leverage learning research approaches to develop short, engaging comics about the value of COVID-19 vaccines. The narratives will be grounded in current science and designed to be relevant to audiences with specific cultural and racial/ethnic identities. Mobilizing our partnerships with publishers, schools, libraries, museums, and media, we will provide a diverse public audience with direct access to the comic narratives in physical and digital forms.
