The Hollywood Covid-19 Vaccine Writes Wrong Information

As doctors and health care professionals race against the Covid-19 vaccinations skepticism, some Hollywood producers, writers and presenters bet that the inclusion of vaccines in television stories could help curb widespread misinformation.

Programs in TV networks began to integrate Covid-19 into scripts, including questions about social distance and masking, as the pandemic spread in the US in March. While vaccination efforts are underway nationwide, shows like “This Is Us” – which features a recurring character two doses of a vaccine in an episode last month – are integrating vaccinations into episodes and the audience can expect more points for vaccinations, says Kate Folb, director of the Hollywood, Health and Society program at the University of Southern California.

Folb is a member of a growing network of entertainment industry experts who work closely with writers and forerunners to accurately portray health and medical information, and use the entertainment to fuel the misinformation campaigns and nationwide skepticism fueled by social media , to fight.

The use of the entertainment industry to transmit public health information is not a new phenomenon. Major networks, including ABC, CBS and NBC in the 1980s, are attributed to raising awareness of a nationwide designated managerial campaign by introducing posters and references in programs such as ‘Cheers’ and ‘LA Law’.

“People actually believe what they see on TV, and it’s essential that we provide accurate information,” says Neal Baer, ​​a physician and author and producer of programs such as “ER” and “Designated Survivor.”

Authors, health professionals, and advocates struggle with how to tell vaccine stories that satisfy a variety of opinions, concerns, and points of view, while retaining both viewers and ratings.

According to a February study from the Pew Research Center, 19% of adults have already received at least one dose of vaccine, while another 50% said they would definitely or probably be vaccinated. Despite increasing optimism about vaccinations, the numbers differ when divided by race and ethnicity.

When asked in November, 42% of black adults said they would be vaccinated, compared to 63% of Hispanic Americans and 61% of white adults. About 61% of black adults say they plan to be vaccinated or already have, while 70% of Hispanics and 69% of whites, according to Pew data, agree.

While polls suggest growing confidence in the direction of being vaccinated, there is no single reason why people are still hesitant, and apart from race, there are other factors that lead to higher levels of skepticism, politics (IDP commitment), religion (white evangelists) and geography (rural) Americans). Seventy-two percent of respondents to the Pew study expressed concern about side effects; 67% expressed concern about the rapid development and testing of the vaccines; while another 61% noticed a lack of knowledge of how they work.

“We’ve looked at how we can tell stories about hesitant vaccines, but it’s not a monolithic one-idea problem,” Baer says.

Some of the mistrust and skepticism towards vaccines and the medical system in the African-American community, for example, date from the infamous 20th-century Tuskegee study on syphilis. African American medical associations and professionals have been stepping up efforts on social media over the past few months to promote the vaccine for a group hardest hit by the pandemic.

According to the latest Kaiser Family Foundation Vaccine Monitor Survey, about a quarter of black adults said they were more likely to take a “wait and see” approach to being vaccinated than more than half said in December. has. For the Latino community, where language barriers and a lack of trust in government were factors, only 18% said they would “wait and see”, compared to 43%. Among white adults, those who wait and see have dropped to 16%, from 36%.

‘There’s still a bit of hesitation out there. About 10-15% of Americans are pretty much put to death for being vaccinated and probably another 15% are pretty skeptical, so we need to work on that. In terms of herd immunity, there is no doubt that … we should probably be over 70%, probably in the eighties or ninety percent, “Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told the March 30 the CNBC’s Meg Tirrell told the CNBC @Work Summit on March 30.

As of 6 a.m. Thursday, 19.4% of the U.S. population had been fully vaccinated, while about a third had received at least one dose, the CDC reported. According to public health experts, it is imperative that more Americans be vaccinated across the broad sections of society without pushing too hard.

“I think the best way to persuade people is to persuade people, it’s not to necessarily compel them, and again there are a lot of people who are skeptical, more in the wait-and-see category, and I think they can be encouraged, ‘Jha said.

Technology companies are doing more to fight vaccine misinformation on social media, which is one of the major contributors to vaccine concerns. Last month, Facebook announced it would label posts about Covid-19 vaccines and launched a nationwide tool to provide information and help users detect vaccines. The announcement comes amid harsh criticism from lawmakers over the spread of vaccine conspiracies and misinformation on the platform. Twitter said in December that it would mark posts about incorrect vaccine information and in some cases delete it.

Ongoing studies suggest that what the audience sees on television informs their knowledge and attitudes, making it an effective platform for disseminating and disseminating public health information.

In an early 2000 study by KFF, for example, it was found that the integration of storylines associated with emergency contraception and human papillomavirus in the hit program “ER” drastically increased awareness. The proportion of viewers who said they knew about HPV nearly doubled the week after the episode aired, while those who were able to correctly define HPV and its association with cervical cancer tripled.

Major television networks during the 1980s are also attributed to the fact that they were named to a nationwide driver campaign by Harvard School of Public Health that combates drunk driving.

According to a recent survey conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, appealing to concerns about protecting loved ones may motivate some Covid-19 skeptics. The study, which surveyed 1,074 people nationwide about their attitude toward the pandemic, found that those who take social distance as a violation of their rights and freedoms respond more positively when it endangers a loved one.

Withholding language control such as ‘you should’ or ‘you better’, to respect their concerns and to agree with them as much as possible, can also be an effective way to communicate reasons for being vaccinated with this group, says Ken Resnicow. , one of the authors of the study.

Resnicow says vaccine skeptics generally split into two groups, the ‘wait and see’ group, which includes many minority communities, including blacks, and generally responds more to new information, and the ‘hard no’ group, populated by both white Republicans and evangelists. , who often view the ingestion of a vaccine or mask as a threat to religious freedom.

“Information is not going to convince them,” Resnicow says. “The ‘hard no’ group will not necessarily be moved by efficiency or safety data, as the fundamental objection is much more emotional,” and built on continuing views of government and religion.

To help writers and television programs communicate compelling messages is the mission of Cultique, a company that advises the entertainment industry on cultural issues. Linda Ong, CEO and founder, says one way to do this is through the behavior of models. The technique is as simple as explicitly portraying a character who wants to see more information about vaccine or as subtle as stomping a character’s elbow or running inward for a mask, which is an effective tool for those can be on the edge, says Ong.

Ong launched the ‘Be a Protector’ message campaign in January with the aim of encouraging industry professionals to help model safe behavior of Covid-19. Michigan, Yale, HHS of USC, The Ad Council and the Creative Coalition – a non-profit organization working with actors, directors and entertainment industry workers to teach social issues – are among the groups already enrolled in the program has.

“Someone who has not studied science for twenty years would rather hear a story,” says Sten Vermund, dean of the Yale University School of Public Health, who works with the group. “Those of us in science need to do much better with storytelling.”

The Creative Coalition is currently working with writers of programs such as ‘New Amsterdam’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ to combat vaccine hesitation, says the organization’s CEO Robin Bronk. Much of the work that disseminates information across cable, digital, and streaming channels involves information sessions, enlarging meetings, and providing raw data for writers to implement in storylines.

Some organizations are betting on publicity stunts with influential celebrities to gain support for the vaccines. In March, Dolly Parton turned her vaccine into a public announcement when she received her first dose of Moderna vaccine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and sang a vaccine song to the tune of ‘Jolene’. BET, in an effort to appeal to the black audience, aired a half-hour TV special in January in which actor and director Tyler Perry asks questions and receives a vaccine.

The Creative Coalition, in partnership with the Yale University School of Public Health, will debut a series of short public service announcements in an effort to drive public opinion, the first of which Morgan Freeman appeared and aired on April 5th.

“It’s about how you use the power of entertainment and art for social good,” Bronk says. “We are working as fast and furiously as we can to get the message out.”