Building Vaccine Literacy in a Pandemic: How One Team of Public Health Students Is Responding

Abstract

Students at schools and programs of public health will enter a workforce during the greatest public health crisis in the past century. The potential COVID-19 vaccine—one of the most promising tools to return to a new ‘normal’—is held in doubt by many Americans. Vaccine literacy in the United States is a pressing issue that students of public health need to consider. We describe how a long-standing public health student crisis response team at Emory University is helping to address this challenge, and describe key principles we identify as worthy of study and focus for current public health students today. Schools and programs of public health have a timely opportunity to adapt their curricula to meet training needs of emerging public health students to equip them to address vaccine literacy while maintaining accreditation standards.

Notes

¹ Includes undergraduate and graduate programs.

² An integrated learning experience can be a thesis paper or capstone class, a requirement for the master of public health degree.

³ Traditionally known as a practicum.

⁴ https://sites.google.com/view/emory-sort/home