With more than half of the US population having received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the shape of our vaccine rollout is changing. And while the unvaccinated people who remain are often lumped together and generalized as “hesitant” or “anti-vaccine,” many unvaccinated individuals have significant trouble accessing health care, or reliable information about the vaccine. Community leaders must understand the specific barriers and concerns that are preventing different groups from accessing the vaccines, and they must deploy targeted strategies to address them.

Get Out the Vaccine (GOTVax) is a Boston-based initiative working to reach this heterogeneous group of unvaccinated Americans by engaging with disenfranchised populations and adapting political campaign strategies to aid the vaccine rollout. By involving community leaders, health care providers, electoral campaign staff, and a local supply chain company, GOTVax bridges the gap between community engagement and health care accessibility through our pop-up vaccine clinics, which reached up to seven clinics per week in mid-May. Although our clinics initially served hundreds of patients per clinic from March through May, the number of patients at our clinics is now dwindling, despite the fact that communities of color in Boston still have disproportionately low vaccination rates.

In response, GOTVax revamped its operations to better reach unvaccinated residents. Our approach applied the Surgo Ventures framework, built from their analysis of nationally representative survey data on American attitudes toward the vaccine. Along with “the Enthusiasts,” they identified four distinct groups of vaccine hesitators:

  • the Watchful,
  • the Cost-Anxious,
  • the System Distrusters, and
  • the COVID Skeptics.

Ultimately, our priorities are to ensure equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccines and to engage sincerely and openly with those who aren’t yet sure about getting their shot. To date, GOTVax has delivered nearly 7,000 COVID-19 vaccines, aiming to reach 10,000. This pandemic demonstrated in myriad ways how our communities, cities, states, and nation as a whole are paradoxically interconnected and fractionated. This remains true when it comes to vaccination. We must continue to inform, engage, and reimagine vaccination outreach for everyone’s sake.

Read the full article about expanding vaccine access by Anson Tong, Cade Herman, David Velasquez, and Alister Martin at Stanford Social Innovation Review.