enhancing the value and wider benefit of research into coronavirus discourses: a pan-london immunisation campaign

This follow-on project applies approaches, findings and outputs developed as part of the AHRC-funded project Coronavirus Discourses: Linguistic Evidence for Effective Public Health Messaging to enhance a London-wide immunisation campaign ('Why vaccinate?') developed by UKHSA, NHS England, Association of Directors of Public Health, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, London Local Authorities, and community outreach organisations. Coronavirus Discourses responded to the need to tailor health communications to cater for a diverse audience in an information environment that was constantly changing as the pandemic progressed. We produced a guide for health communications professionals containing insights into public preferences for sources of health information, the effectiveness of different messaging types and framing of instructions, and understanding of language used in Covid-19 communications. By understanding these preferences, message writers may improve the reception of health communications and increase compliance with guidance. We now have the opportunity to enhance the value and benefit of the Coronavirus Discourses project by taking its insights in the new, broader direction of vaccine hesitancy. We have been approached by UKHSA, one of our original partners, to apply the learnings from Coronavirus Discourses to their new pan-London, multi-agency campaign 'Why Vaccinate?' (2024-2027). Immunisation uptake has been identified as an urgent global health priority by the World Health Organisation, and the 'Why Vaccinate?' campaign has been designed to improve vaccine uptake and address hesitancy in London, a region with a highly mobile population and social inequalities. We will apply the approaches and insights developed during the Coronavirus Discourses project to the new context of health messaging on vaccination against common infectious diseases, which will allow us to: (i) appraise and inform message design; (ii) design a blueprint for public health messaging best practice around vaccination; (iii) develop training materials to support tailoring of health campaigns for diverse audiences and deliver training workshops to partners; (iv) develop a collection of discourses around vaccination, focusing on multicultural and multilingual communities, to support public health agencies. We will achieve this through the following programme of activities: Applying the Coronavirus Discourses findings and approaches to immunisation communications in multicultural and multilingual contexts Informing a series of campaign design iterations based on audience feedback to be applied throughout the campaign's duration (2024-2027), beyond this follow-on project Adapting guidance produced as part of Coronavirus Discourses for health crisis communication for specific immunisation contexts in consultation with UKHSA Sharing the refined guidance for vaccination messaging with key stakeholders in public health communications (e.g., government agencies, health communication organisations) The assets developed for this project will be open access for any public health agency, organisation, or professional to use, and will have value for wider immunisation campaign communications beyond London. The ability to apply our research to this important campaign will illustrate the leading role of arts and humanities approaches to inform public health practice by reducing the gap between the language traditionally used by message designers and the linguistic needs and preferences of different audiences, thus improving shared understanding and decision making.