The script for the Hollywood Covid-19 vaccine that fights misinformation

While doctors and health professionals compete against skepticism over vaccination against Covid-19, some Hollywood producers, writers, and showrunners are betting that introducing vaccines into television plots may help curb widespread misinformation.

Programs through television networks began integrating Covid-19 into scripts, including questions about social distancing and masking, as the pandemic spread across the United States last March. Now, as vaccination efforts increase across the country, programs like “This Is Us,” which featured a recurring character receiving two doses of a vaccine in one episode last month, integrate vaccines into episodes and the The public can expect to see more points from the vaccination plot, 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 showrunners to accurately represent medical and health information, and use entertainment to combat disinformation campaigns and skepticism. national driven by social media.

Using the entertainment industry to convey public health information is not a new phenomenon. Major networks, including ABC, CBS, and NBC, in the 1980s, are credited with raising awareness of a nationally designated driver campaign by introducing posters and references on programs such as “Cheers” and “LA Law.” .

“In fact, people believe what they see on television and it’s imperative that we provide accurate information,” says Neal Baer, ​​a physician and writer and producer of programs like “ER” and “Designated Survivor”.

Writers, health professionals, and advocates are confronted with how to tell vaccine stories that respond to a range of opinions, concerns, and points of view, while maintaining both viewers and ratings.

According to a February study by the Pew Research Center, 19% of adults had already received at least one dose of vaccine, while another 50% said they would definitely or probably get vaccinated. Despite growing optimism about vaccinations, these figures differ when broken down by race and ethnicity.

When a survey was conducted in November, 42% of black adults said they would be vaccinated, compared to 63% of Hispanics and 61% of white adults. Now, about 61 percent of black adults say they plan to get vaccinated or already have it, while 70 percent of Hispanics and 69 percent of whites agree, according to Pew.

While polls indicate growing confidence in vaccination, there is no single reason why people continue to hesitate and, in addition to race, other factors that lead to higher levels of skepticism are politics (Republican Party affiliation), religion (white evangelists), and geography (rural Americans). Seventy-two percent of respondents in the Pew study cited concerns about side effects; 67% expressed concern about the rapid development and testing of vaccines; while another 61% noticed an ignorance of how they work.

“We’ve been studying how to tell stories about vaccine hesitation, but it’s not a one-idea monolithic problem,” Baer says.

Part of the distrust and skepticism about vaccines and the medical system of the African American community, for example, goes back to Tuskegee’s infamous 20th-century study of syphilis. In recent months, African American medical associations and medical professionals have stepped up efforts on social media to promote the vaccine for a group that has been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic.

According to the latest Kaiser Family Foundation vaccine monitoring survey, about a quarter of black adults said they are more likely to adopt a “wait and see” method to get vaccinated in front of more than half of them. say in December. For the Latino community, where language barriers and lack of trust in government have been factors, only 18% said they would “wait to see”, it would go beyond 43%. Among white adults, those expecting a wait-and-see approach fell to 16%, from 36%.

“There’s still a bit of hesitation. About 10 to 15 percent of Americans are pretty dead from vaccination and probably another 15 percent are pretty skeptical, so we have to work on that. of immunity to the herd, there is no doubt that … we probably need to be well above 70%, probably at eighty or ninety percent, ”said Ashish Jha, dean of the University School of Public Health. Brown, to CNBC’s Meg Tirrell at the CNBC @Work Summit on March 30th.

On Thursday, at 6 a.m., 19.4% of the U.S. population has been completely vaccinated, while about a third have received at least one dose, the CDC reports. According to public health experts, convincing the vaccination of more Americans in broad sections of society without putting too much pressure is critical.

“I think the best way to persuade people is to persuade people, it’s not necessarily commanding it, and again, there’s a lot of skeptical people, who are more down to category and I think it can be encouraged,” Said Jha.

Technology companies are doing more to combat vaccine misinformation on social media, a major contributor to vaccine concerns. Last month, Facebook announced it would tag posts about Covid-19 vaccines and launched a nationwide tool to provide information and help users locate vaccines. The announcement came after harsh criticism from lawmakers for allowing the spread of vaccine conspiracies and misinformation on its platform. Twitter said in December that it would mark and, in some cases, remove posts about vaccine misinformation.

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

A study from the early 2000s by KFF, for example, found that the integration of stories related to emergency contraception and human papilloma virus into the successful “ER” program increased dramatically. consciousness. The proportion of viewers who said they knew about HPV nearly doubled the week after the episode aired, while those who could correctly define HPV and its link to cervical cancer tripled. .

Major television networks during the 1980s are also credited with joining a national driver campaign designated by the Harvard School of Public Health aimed at curbing drunk driving.

According to a recent survey by researchers at the University of Michigan, appealing to concerns about protecting loved ones could motivate some Covid-19 skeptics. The study, which interviewed 1,074 people across the country about their attitudes toward the pandemic, found that those who see social distancing as a violation of their rights and freedoms responded more positively when they put a being at risk. dear.

Ken Resnicow, refraining from controlling a language like “you should” or “better”, respecting their concerns and affirming and “agreeing with them as much as possible,” can also be an effective way to communicate the reasons to get vaccinated with this group. , one of the authors of the study.

Resnicow says vaccine skeptics are generally divided into two groups, the “wait and see” group, which includes many minority communities, including blacks and generally responds to new information, and the “not hard” group, populated for both white Republicans and evangelists. , who often consider getting a vaccine or masking themselves as a threat to religious freedom.

“The information won’t persuade them,” Resnicow says. “This‘ hard-core ’group will not necessarily be moved by efficacy or safety data, because the fundamental objection is much more emotional,” and it is based on the constant views of government and religion.

The mission of Cultique, a company that advises the entertainment industry on cultural issues, is to help writers and television programs communicate persuasive messages. Linda Ong, its CEO and founder, says one way to do this is by modeling behavior. The technique is as simple as explicitly depicting a character looking for more information about the vaccine or as subtle as showing an elbow of a character bumping or running inside to get a mask, which can be an effective tool for those on the edge. , says Ong.

Ong launched the “Be a Protector” messaging campaign in January, aimed at encouraging industry professionals to help model safe Covid-19 behavior. Michigan, Yale, USC HHS, The Ad Council and Creative Coalition, a non-profit organization that works with actors, directors and workers in the entertainment industry to educate on social issues, are among the groups that already they have signed the program.

“Someone who hasn’t studied science for twenty years prefers to hear a story,” says Sten Vermund, dean of the Yale University School of Public Health who works with the group. “Those of us who are scientists need to do so much better with storytelling.”

The Creative Coalition is currently working with writers on programs like “New Amsterdam” and “Grey’s Anatomy” to combat the hesitation, says the organization’s CEO, Robin Bronk. Much of the work of disseminating information through cable, digital, and broadcast channels includes briefings, Zoom meetings, and the provision of raw data for writers to implement in plots.

Some organizations are betting on advertising events with famous influencers to support vaccine support. In March, Dolly Parton turned her vaccine into a public service announcement when she received her first dose of the Modern vaccine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and sang a vaccine song to the tone of “Jolene.” BET, in an attempt to influence black audiences, aired a half-hour television special in January with actor and director Tyler Perry asking questions and receiving a vaccine.

The Creative Coalition, along with Yale University School of Public Health, will release a series of short public service announcements in an attempt to influence public opinion, the first of which featured Morgan Freeman and is aired on April 5th.

“It’s about how the power of entertainment and the arts is used for the social good,” Bronk says. “We are working as fast and furiously as possible to get the message across.”