Engaging Community Stakeholders to Address Vaccine Hesitancy in Racialized and Diasporic Communities

Evidence shows that COVID-19 vaccines in Canada reduce infection, lower transmission, and strongly prevent severe outcomes and hospitalizations. Vaccines are an important part of a layered approach to reducing severe illnesses and death. Yet there are still pockets of people hesitant to get vaccinated, In Canada, millions of people are still not vaccinated, including people come from different ethno-racial communities. Little is known about the reasons for vaccine hesitancy in these communities. Preliminary findings from our scoping review reveal lack of easy access to vaccines, poverty, a mistrust of public institutions, racism, and mis/disinformation as major causes. As a result, the goal of this planning and dissemination project is to build equitable and empowering partnerships to address vaccine hesitancy in ethno-racial communities in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). We aim to bring together community leaders, service providers, and key informants from Asian, Black, Middle Eastern, Latinx, and North African (MENA) communities to: (i) share the results of a recent literature review on vaccine hesitancy in the above communities; (ii) engage community stakeholders in discussing the reasons for vaccine hesitancy in the their communities; (iii) work with these community stakeholders on good public health messaging around vaccine hesitancy and misinformation; and (iv) develop a community-based CIHR grant proposal team that works toward a grassroots public health communication plan for use during public health crises.