WORSHIP ACTION COALITION DEVELOPING VACCINE MESSAGING PROGRAMS WORSHIP ACTION INTRODUCTION COALITION Houses of worship and faith-based organizations have often been a cornerstone in the fight against inequities as well as a trusted source of information and guidance during troubled times. The DEVELOPING current health crisis is no exception. Vaccine hesitancy has been a persistent issue in the vaccine roll out process. Houses of worship can play a key role in informing the message development and VACCINE strategy process, as well as delivering those messages to their MESSAGING congregations and extended communities. This playbook is intended to support faith groups in their effort to deliver these key messages about vaccination. It is supplemented PROGRAMS by additional guides on setting up your house of worship as a vaccine site and developing vaccine access programs. These materials are an initiative of the GHC3’s Worship Action Coalition as part of our commitment to help all faiths return safely to their places of worship and to collaborate with faith leaders to find real solutions to the inequities exacerbated by the pandemic. The initial aim of the Worship Action Coalition was to create best practices for worshiping in-person safely. We are now focused on 1) the role of clergy as trusted sources of information on COVID vaccines, and 2) congregations at disproportionate risk for COVID-19 as locations where members and the surrounding community can get vaccinated, and 3) how both clergy and houses of worship can participate effectively in addressing health disparities. Together, we’re learning about the challenges and working to find real solutions. If you have question, concerns, or are interested in partnering with the Worship Action Coalition, send an email to [email protected]. TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION 1: Developing Culturally Relevant, Targeted Messaging 3 SECTION 2: Disseminating Messaging 3 SECTION 3: Troubleshooting: When Religious Beliefs and Vaccination Appear To Conflict 4 SECTION 4: Troubleshooting: General COVID-19 Vaccine Concerns and Myths 6 2 SECTION 1 DEVELOPING CULTURALLY as part of the event creates concerns of the safety of RELEVANT, TARGETED MESSAGING community members that might prefer not to have interactions with police. The first step in developing messaging around vaccinations is to consider the attitudes and beliefs of 4. Specific language and tone can change the perception your congregation. What are congregants’ stances towards of the intention of communication. We need to be vaccination in general? Do you face issues of misinformation careful with the words we use and how we use them. from outside sources? } For example, instead of saying, “You will be required Here are some tips for crafting messages that will resonate to stay for 30 minutes in case of negative reactions,” best with your congregation. say, “Community health personnel will be available to answer any questions you may have around reactions, 1. Use rich, descriptive language to address your audience. care, and what to expect.” For instance, if you are offering your house of worship } Mentioning the possibility of adverse reactions will as a vaccination site, instead of writing “Vaccination cause the anticipation of a negative reaction and can event for immigrants” on your flier, for instance, write create fear and concerns. Explain that people are “Latino Vaccination Event / Evento de vacunación para encouraged to remain for 15 to 30 minutes in the rare la comunidad.” event of severe allergic reaction. Be wary of words that can be sensitive to strong 5. Translate messages into relevant languages within and responses, such as “immigrants” in the above example. outside your congregation. Using immigrants as part of the outreach raises the flag for anti-immigrant activists that may decide to show up } If your congregation has a significant presence of and protest. Additionally, the word describes a status not multiple language communities, recruit volunteers everyone feels comfortable disclosing. from each community to help with translating materials in a way that sounds natural and 2. When messaging about a particular site or event, trustworthy in every language. provide clear information on the following items that } Consider cultural variances in the nuances of specific might be relevant to your congregations: terms within linguistic communities with large subgroups. You want to develop the most targeted, } Who is the vaccination provider? What vaccine(s) will clear, and natural messaging possible for all groups in be available? your congregation. } Who will be at the event? Are there multilingual volunteers on-site? Will the event provide childcare? 6. Recommended best practices to increase accessibility to } Will the site offer other services or screenings? community members to effective, clear and actionable (e.g.,, HIV testing, food distribution, etc.) information and vaccination sites include: } How will second dose appointments (if needed) be secured? } Limiting the use of technical and medical terminology } Will there be a special line for seniors, people with } Limiting the inclusion of statistics or terms that limited abilities or those who cannot stand for a audiences find confusing in order to explain the risk. long time? } Using multiple media of communication (e.g., not just } Will it be walk-up or drive-through? print materials for persons with limited reading skills but also speeches, videos, podcasts, etc.) 3. Proof of eligibility or identification is not required at } Focusing on awareness and information rather than vaccination sites. In your messaging, do not stress the action and behavior. need to bring proof of ID to vaccine appointments. } Avoiding literal translations as they can often be Prioritizing SSN or other forms of proof of identification inaccurate or lack nuance. in messaging creates the appearance of limited eligibility, } More guidance on language use is available at and including entities associated with law enforcement PlainLanguage.gov, supported by the General Services Administration. 3 SECTION 2 DISSEMINATING MESSAGING Social Media Many houses of worship have found that social media Messages can be delivered in a variety of ways—through is an effective way to reach a large audience, especially music, humor, and written word, for example. They can be younger congregants. Posting videos on Tik Tok, Instagram, explicitly spoken, delivered dramatically, or spread through Snapchat, YouTube, Twitter, or Facebook that include word of mouth. You can post written messages on online congregants and faith leaders receiving the vaccine can bulletins, physical bulletin boards, email newsletters, blog encourage vaccine-hesitant individuals to do their part for posts, or social media. themselves and their community. Messengers should be trusted community members and Hashtags such as the following can help connect your leaders, but they will vary depending on the audience you posts and/or videos with a larger body of resources for the are trying to reach. Consider age, cultural background, general public to see: geography, and socioeconomic status when choosing your messengers. } #CancelCovid } #VaccinesWork } #HealingStartsHere } #TheTruthAboutCovid Rely on past experiences. If you send out a weekly email } #CovidVaccine } #CovidTruths newsletter to your congregation, use that as your main } #ImVaccinated } #CovidMyths mode of messaging. If you have a place where you post } #IGotVaccinated } #LifeInAPandemic important information in your house of worship, put } #VaccinesSaveLives resources and informative fliers there. Stick with your regular, trusted platforms and you will be Don’t be afraid to link your posts to other resources successful in reaching your congregants. But at the same about vaccination from the CDC, state and local health time, do not be afraid to extend your outreach into new departments, or trusted nonprofits such as theAssociation territories—consider adding social media platforms to your of Immunization Managers (AIM) or Vaccinate Your messaging repertoire. Family (VYF). The CDC has sample vaccine messages in their social media toolkit for posting written text and/or infographics to nearly every widely used social media platform. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with developing culturally relevant messages, start here and feel free to copy-and-paste these messages, or change them up to create messages that will resonate with your congregation. 4 SECTION 3 History of Fetal Cell Lines TROUBLESHOOTING: in Vaccines: WHEN RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND Historical fetal cell lines were derived in the 1960’s VACCINATION APPEAR TO CONFLICT and 1970’s from two elective abortions and have been used to create vaccines for diseases such as hepatitis Concerns about Ingredients Meeting Dietary A, rubella, and rabies. Abortions from which fetal cells Restrictions: Are the vaccines Halal or Kosher? were obtained were elective and were not done for the purpose of vaccine development. While it is true that some vaccines are made with gelatin from animal by-products, the three vaccines approved The fetal cell lines being used to produce some of the for use in the United States, Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, potential COVID-19 vaccines are from two sources: and Johnson & Johnson, do not include gelatin in their ingredient lists. ~ HEK-293: A kidney cell line that was isolated from a fetus in 1973 (undisclosed origin, from either a Although none of these vaccines have been officially Halal- spontaneous miscarriage