Covid-19 Vaccines’ Massive PR Problem

The speed with which Pfizer and Moderna developed and submitted for approval vaccines for the Covid-19 coronavirus is astounding. The vaccines have been approved by the FDA and trusted sources like the CDC and well-known scientists are urging Americans to get vaccinated as soon as they are able.  But even as the vaccines began rolling out first, to front-line health care workers and other essential workers, misinformation and doubt is beginning to spread.

African-Americans and other minorities are beginning to share a reluctance to get vaccinated, and who can blame them, when the spectre of the Tuskegee experiment still occupies memories?

The vaccines have a massive PR problem that must:

• Correct misinformation, of which there is plenty
• Reach people in their communities, through churches, neighborhoods, and even visiting nurses
• Spotlight trusted individuals through public, televised and social media-broadcast vaccinations, to inspire confidence and change minds

It’s going to be a tough campaign, and like the Y2K campaigns that ruled 1999, the Covid vaccines campaigns will fuel the PR and communications industry for at least the year to come.