Introduction
Finding a credible spokesperson for this campaign of promoting the COVID-19 vaccine is a great step toward achieving the end goal of changing people’s perspectives and having more people vaccinated. In this case, I will consider the head of the public health department, Mr. Smith as the most credible spokesperson because he has a great reputation. Additionally, since he has headed several other public health programs, the general public will easily identify with him as opposed to using a different person who is not known to the public. His immense contribution to the public health sector has earned him recognition, hence people will easily want to listen to him and most probably trust his message. Mr. Smith has severally appeared in public campaigns and is good at mobilizing people. Therefore, his great skills and experience will be useful in the campaign, and I will achieve the main objective of convincing more people to get vaccinated.
Main body
I will utilize personal appearances, social media, and public advertisement venues of communication to reach the target audience. The use of these communication avenues will include people of different ages, genders, and socio-economic divides. Also, a combination of these methods will reach a wide scope of people since the message is not only limited to a specific group reachable through a single venue. The use of different venues of communication will help me to emphasize the importance of COVID-19 vaccination to the people. For example, the target population will encounter the same information from different sources and at different times and this may provoke their mind to start thinking positively about the vaccine and want to get it after some time. Lastly, people in the targeted group who cannot be reached through social media will be reached through either public advertisements or personal appearances, thus, I will have ensured that no one is left out without receiving the information due to the limitations of the communication channel.
Many people who are hesitant to take the COVID-19 vaccine are more concerned about its safety and efficacy in managing and/or protecting one from the disease. The safety of this vaccine may not be a hundred percent guaranteed, but simply because it is a new vaccine, it does not mean that it is unsafe to use. We all take medications almost every time due to different health problems, although I believe we never take the time to research more about the drugs we take. We tend to trust them more because they have been used for a long time, the truth is that their usage began somewhere, with people who never got scared and who chose not to listen to the negative comments. Similarly, the immunization vaccines that have been proven effective in protecting young children from childhood ailments that affect growth and increase mortality rate were once disputed based on safety and efficacy. Bliss’ On Immunity explains how scared were mothers to have their children immunized (Biss). Today, everyone wants their baby to get immunized first.
Similarly, Camus’ The Plague not only presents a case of a city attacked by a plague and people’s livelihoods affected but also sheds light on how the affected cope with the plague. When the residents of the affected city joined hands and worked together, they achieved far better results as opposed to a case where each pursued individual interests (Camus and Gilbert). When people remain united during a crisis, their bonds become stronger, thus allowing them an opportunity to come up with ways of handling their challenges. We need to protect each other during this pandemic and taking the COVID-19 vaccine is the sure and safe way to do that, thus allowing us to sail through this plague.
COVID-19 vaccine has been approved by the bodies that regulate the use of drugs such as the FDA and WHO, hence it is safe for human use although it has not been used before. According to García and Cerda, COVID-19 complications were less severe among people who took only the first dose of the vaccine compared to those who had not been vaccinated (78). Similarly, people who took both the first and second doses had less severe cardiopulmonary complications resulting from the disease. Thus, taking both the first and second doses of the vaccine was found to protect one by 75 percent and reduce the severity of COVID-19 complications by 95 percent (Singh 81). Therefore, although vaccination does not guarantee a hundred percent protection against COVID-19, it provides a high level of protection by lowering the severity of complications.
Vaccination is certainly not the only way to curb the spread of the pandemic, but so far the best. I would not like to imagine a scenario where everyone is vaccinated and I am the black sheep in a flock of white. People are embracing this vaccine and sooner than later we will have the majority vaccinated. Vaccination has been shown to significantly reduce the rate of transmission by about 65 percent (Singh 80). In other words, people who are vaccinated do not easily transmit the disease or get infected. Hence, vaccination is a sure way of protecting one another from the pandemic and ensuring that case fatalities remain significantly low. Although vaccination is essential for controlling the pandemic, other protective measures such as putting on a mask, social distancing, and sanitizing and/or hand washing remain central to controlling the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conclusion
Lastly, since this campaign will be conducted through three different communication avenues, there will be different timings for each message. First, I will use social media to reach a wide scope of users who are hesitant to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Social media communication will be conducted during the evening hours since this is when most people relax after work. On the other hand, advertisements will be conducted through the media, especially television and they will be aired shortly after the news when the majority of the people are suspected to be watching. These advertisements will be repeated at different times of the day to reach as many people as possible. Finally, I will use personal appearances, such as making a physical presence to the target audience during specific occasions or times. Since making a physical appearance often may be difficult due to transport and other logistics, I will target the football games that are the most watched in the U.S. I will present myself and make a public address shortly before the game starts when all the people are calmly seated. Addressing the people before the game starts is better than after the game is over because after the match some may want to leave early.
Works Cited
Biss, Eula. On Immunity. Graywolf Press, 2014.
Camus, Albert, and Stuart Gilbert. The Plague. 1947. Vintage Books, 1991.
García, Leidy Y., and Arcadio A. Cerda. “Acceptance of a COVID-19 Vaccine: A Multifactorial Consideration.” Vaccine, vol. 38, no. 48, 2020, pp. 7587.
Singh, Jerome Amir. “COVID-19 Vaccine Trials: Duty of Care and Standard of Prevention Considerations.” Vaccine, vol. 38, no. 48, 2020, pp. 7578-7580.