Updating the Public on COVID-19 Vaccine Safety - Considerations for Pharmacoepidemiologists

Background: The risks and benefits of COVID-19 vaccines have been at the center of public attention throughout the pandemic. Among other fields of expertise, pharmacoepidemiologists have been tasked with communicating about the vaccines in a wide variety of outlets. While this has demonstrated the importance of pharmacoepidemiology for public policy and public health, it has also elucidated challenges with public communication about vaccines, such as engaging with policy-makers and experts from other fields, balancing trust, clarity and transparency and managing the tension between advocating and informing policy.

This symposium raises these and other crucial issues with the aim of staking out future avenues for risk-benefit communication by pharmacoepidemiologists.

The symposium continues discussions at the 2021 ISPE symposium on Communicating COVID-19 Pharmacoepidemiological Research to Patients and aims to facilitate future work on public communication of vaccine and pharmacoepidemiology, based on the latest experiences and evaluation of communications.

Objectives: Identify the most salient lessons learnt about public communication of risks and benefit regarding messaging, selecting platforms and other dissemination factors
Discuss motivating examples and opportunities to better communicate to address public concerns and public health needs
Discuss which methods and concepts can be adapted from other disciplines, e.g. social sciences, and other health topics.
Discuss the role of ISPE in facilitating communication with patients and the public and engaging ISPE members in next steps.

Description: This symposium offers five perspectives from different countries, stakeholders and scientific disciplines on practice and implications involved in communicating results of pharmacoepidemiological studies to the public. The symposium will conclude with a moderated discussion between the audience and the panelists, focusing on how to build on the lessons learnt and how ISPE can help advance public communication efforts.

- Introduction, Dr. Mathias Møllebæk (5 min)
- Updating the Public on COVID-19 Vaccines Safety, Dr. Priya Bahri (11 min)
- Visualizing the Benefit-Risk Balance of Vaccines, Is It Helpful?, Dr. Peter Mol (11 min)
- Rapid Message Testing and Countering Misinformation Using Social Media Simulations, Dr. Nabarun Dasgupta (11 min)
- Vaccine Communication In Australia, Dr. Barbara Mintzes (11 min)
- Vaccinations End Pandemics, Not Vaccines: Lessons from Communication Sciences, Dr. Mathias Møllebæk (11 min)
- Moderated panel session (30 min); What are the most salient lessons about communicating benefits and risks of vaccines? Dr. Anton Pottegård (moderator)