Increasing COVID-vaccination rates with policy-making?
In my previous blogpost, I discussed the importance of making understandable policies during a pandemic. However, as it is also discussed on our main page, health literacy goes beyond just the understanding of provided information. Health literacy also considers the use of it to make the well-thought and critical decisions in the domain of health.
So, if governments would take this aspect of low-literacy into account, would that then also result in more effective policies? And if so, could we then also say that a more considerate vaccination policy could easily increase vaccination rates? Because if that is the case, creating more awareness around this topic and taking it into account while creating and testing policies, is of an even bigger importance than ever before during these times of a pandemic.
Are more considerate policies also more effective?
There are multiple scholars that argue that they are. An example is a piece by Sørensen and others. They stress that policies that consider low health literacy, result in better decision-making in society. So, policies taking those who have difficulties with such skills, would be more effective in reaching their goals. However, this is still relatively broad and needs some narrowing down.
Baur and Rudd connect this argument to the pandemic itself. Their article advises governments to use understandable language for everyone, especially during a pandemic, because that will definitely increase the ability to reach its goals. However, question is: to what extent can we apply this argument?
Does that then mean that creating more considerate policies could increase COVID-vaccination rates?
There are scholars that argue that it could have effect on the vaccination rates. Lorini and others, for example, have argued that there is a link between having difficulties with literacy skills and the decision to get any kind of vaccination.
Focussing specifically on the COVID-vaccination, Biasio and others argue that there is a possible link between having a low level of literacy or education and a negative attitude towards the COVID-19 vaccinations.
But this argument is not that easily made. Both scholars say that more research is still needed to actually validate this argument. Besides that, there are a lot of other factors besides health literacy that can influence the decision to get vaccinated, for instance media (health) literacy.
So, the link between being more considerate in policy-making and COVID-vaccination rates is not very evident and needs more research. But, based on more general arguments on increased effectiveness, I do believe that taking health literacy into account can be the first step to change.
Linking COVID-information policies with an educational setting, did you come across anything about adding information to education early on? If not, do you have any own thoughts on this?
Hi Amanda! Thanks for your comment. Unfortunately, I did not come across anything about that. But it is a very interesting thought and I do think that integrating it into the educational system might help to create more familiarity with the topic early on. This would make it later easier to understand policies and thus also increase their effectiveness. On the one hand, however, the case of COVID was rather unexpected. Therefore, a strategy such as integrating it into the education would take time, which we unfortunately did not have. But on the other hand, it seems as if COVID is going to stick around for a while, and then, I believe, such a strategy could be very effective! However, as I said before, I did not find any academic evidence for this, so this is merely my opinion. I hope this answers your question and I would love to hear your thoughts on this as well!
Thank you! This could for sure could spark some interesting discussions in classrooms!
Indeed!! 🙂
Hi Judith, what a nice blogpost! Do you know if the possible correlation between low literacy levels and the decision to not get vaccinated is because of the lack of information this group receives, and therefore the lack of trust they have in the vaccines? Or is it linked to difficulties they experience around setting the process of receiving a vaccination in motion? Or something completely different?
Hi Anne! Thanks for your comment! The correlation, as you already indicate is still very uncertain, so reasons for the correlation are even more uncertain. There’s this one article that is talking about health literacy and the reason not to get vaccinated. This article mentions that having difficulties with health literacy also implies not being critical to the information that one receives via television, social media, politicians etc. Therefore, I think that the most prominent reason for those people not to get vaccinated is because they might trust the wrong information that spreads the news that the vaccine is dangerous or other theories. I would advice you to also take a look at the post of Nike on eHealth and the other posts on media health literacy! I hope this gives you some more insight into this topic and do not hesitate any other questions!
Hello Judith! I found your post especially relevant, considering the times we are living in…
However, related to what Anne commented and the disastrous covid situation we are in now, I was wondering if you believe that the government should take into account the development of health literacy in the citizens, or in this case they should disregard this aspect and push people into vaccinating themselves imposing limitations and restrictions for no-vax. I realize that this is a sensible topic, but maybe the research you did may have given some hints to develop your opinion 🙂
Hi Anna! That is a sensitive topic indeed… But I will try to give my opinion in a constructed way 😉 First of all, I want to say that I am convinced that vaccinating as many people as possible against the virus is our way out of this pandemic. But the way to go about reaching that goal, is a different issue… One thing could be, as you say, imposing restrictions and limitations on those not vaccinated. I experienced with putting up such restrictions, is that you create a division within the society, which in my opinion never good. Besides this, I do believe that, even though I am pro-vaccinations, the freedom to do whatever you want is very important for every democracy. Putting more and more limitations and restrictions will harm this freedom also for people that simply cannot be vaccinated because of an auto-immune illness. Also, people already opposed to vaccinations will try to use these restrictions as an example of pressuring and this will avert them even more from vaccinations. So, what might be a possible solution to get more people vaccinated that aren’t already could be, as you already suggested, the government taking the development of health literacy into account. That way, they might be able to make those opposed to vaccinations understand the urgency of getting vaccinated better and maybe this will change their attitude towards vaccinations, without being ‘forced’ due to restrictions and limitations. But this is a very controversial issue, and this is merely my opinion. Hopefully this answered your question. Don’t hesitate to ask any more questions and I am curious to your thoughts on this topic as well (but only if you feel comfortable sharing them)!
Hi Judith! Yes of course, it would be hypocrite of me to ask for your opinion and then refrain from sharing mine 😅 Actually, I never seriously thought about possible formation to critical thinking and helping people construct their opinion in a more thoughtful manner before your post. I asked you a question without really thinking about its implications or how I would answer. Your reply made me reflect and partially changed perspective! As many I believe, I am also tired of the pandemic and always more strict measures being imposed. I got the vaccine and, apart from people who have medical reasons to oppose is, I do not fully understand the perspective of no-vax people. In the end, vaccines are an instrument to save millions of lives. If one does not feel the urge to go to the restaurant rather than traveling and therefore obtain the vaccination certificate, at least they could appeal to a sense of civic justice and respect for society. Those are the reasons which have so far prevented me from grasping motivation against the vaccines. However, I still do believe that imposing the vaccination would hurt individual rights and freedoms, and in my opinion the measure is a bit too extreme. Therefore, I believe that you do have a point in highlighting the creation of societal divisions, and proposing alternative solutions rather than ‘negative’ measures to solve the problem.
I hope what I wrote makes sense and that you get my point! But thank you again for sharing your perspective, it made me think more!