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COVID-19 InfoVaccines: A WHO-supported educational project to promote COVID-19 vaccination information among professionals and the general population.

Narmeen MallahJacobo Pardo-SecoIrene Rivero-CalleOuhao Zhu-HuangMaría Fernández PradaCatharina Reynen-de KatOleg BenesLiudmila MosinaSiddhartha Sankar-DattaOlga AleksinskayaDavid DíazVusala AllahverdiyevaYevgenii GrechukhaTamara JobavaMariia SavchynaPavla KortusovaIoana NovacFederico M Torres
Published in: Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics (2024)
COVID-19 vaccine uptake varied across countries, in part due to vaccine hesitancy fueled by a lack of trustworthy information. To help health workers provide evidence-based answers to common questions about COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination, and thereby, assist individuals´ decisions on vaccine acceptance, COVID-19 InfoVaccines, a joint WHO-EU project, was launched in February 2021 to support COVID-19 vaccine rollout in 6 Eastern European countries. COVID-19 InfoVaccines was made available in seven languages and shared on social media networks. A total of 262,592 users accessed COVID-19 InfoVaccines.com between February 11, 2021, and January 31 st , 2023. The users were most interested in: general questions; vaccine efficacy and duration of protection; vaccine safety; vaccine co-administration, and dose-interval and interchangeability; though the interest in a specific theme varied in function of the epidemiological situation. A total of 118,510 (45.1%) and 46,644 (17.7%) users scrolled up to 35% and 75% of the COVID-19 InfoVaccines webpage, respectively. The average engagement rate was 71.61%. The users accessed COVID-19 InfoVaccines from 231 countries and territories, but the majority were in Ukraine ( N  = 38,404; 14.6%), Spain ( N  = 23,327; 8.9%), and Argentina ( N  = 21,167; 8.1%). Older Facebook users were more interested in COVID-19 information than younger individuals ( X 2 p-value < .0001). Two hundred twenty-eight videos were shared on YouTube. The average Click-Through-Rate on Facebook was 7.82%, and that on YouTube was 4.4%, with 60 videos having a Click-Through-Rate >5%, falling in the range of average YouTube video Click-Through-Rate (2% - 10%). As misinformation about vaccines and vaccination spreads easily and can negatively impact health-related decisions, initiatives like COVID-19 InfoVaccines are crucial to facilitate access to reliable information.
Keyphrases
  • coronavirus disease
  • sars cov
  • social media
  • health information
  • respiratory syndrome coronavirus
  • healthcare
  • public health
  • quality improvement
  • physical activity
  • south africa
  • climate change