Sabin funds researchers investigating COVID-19 misinformation, design solutions to increase vaccine

Sabin funds researchers investigating COVID-19 misinformation, design solutions to increase vaccine acceptance

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 -- The Sabin Vaccine Institute (Sabin) has awarded grants to research teams in four countries to explore social drivers of COVID-19 misinformation, and its impact on routine immunisation acceptance and acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine.

According to a statement, the grants are part of Sabin’s Social and Behavioral Interventions for Vaccination Acceptance Small Grants Program.

It provides funding to researchers in low and middle-income countries to better understand the social drivers of vaccination and design small-scale interventions to assess their impact on vaccination acceptance.

Five research teams in India, Kenya, Pakistan and Uganda will receive up to US$30,000 to conduct this research and pilot a small-scale intervention in their respective communities over a period of 10 months. (US$1 = RM4.042)

Sabin vice-president of Vaccine Acceptance & Demand, Kaitlin Christenson said: "The expected introduction of a COVID-19 vaccine furthers the need to learn more about driving acceptance and demand for vaccines and to work with community immunisation programmes on intervention strategies, while continuing to improve overall immunisation uptake.”

Grantees will have the opportunity to build relationships and have impactful conversations about their research and potential applications of social science for immunisation with the Sabin-led interdisciplinary Vaccination Acceptance Research Network.

Sabin will also support each research team in the compilation and dissemination of an open access journal publication, accessible to the communities in which the research is conducted.

More details at www.sabin.org.

-- BERNAMA