The Communication Challenge of the Century: Coronavirus Vaccine

How’d you like to be in this meeting?

So, we have this vaccine that will help to put an end to the pandemic. We’ve been promised it and we’re waiting for it.

Now, people just have to be persuaded to take it.

The research from Pew Research you can see below is a good example. People aren’t comfortable getting the vaccine and the numbers are trending in the wrong direction.

What’s driving this data?

I’d say the biggest reason is that based on our perception of this process, it seems fast. We’ve been told for years how long it takes to make sure new treatments are safe, and this one is ready in a few months?

You also have motives for why someone would want to rush things forward. From politicians looking to be heroes to competing vaccine makers trying to win the market, there are clear motives why someone would want to rush this thing forward and maybe cut some corners.

The Manhattan Project has been mentioned as a metaphor. It’s probably an apt way to look at it if you want to think about the resources being invested, but there weren’t 10 companies competing to create an atom bomb.

There’s another side. Maybe our regulatory process was too slow before. Many drugs are approved faster elsewhere. And, maybe the competition and resources have sped up the process—it has been known to happen.

Here’s the problem: people have to agree to let you inject it into their body.

During the debate, the President said something like “you don’t trust Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer?” and America’s response was, NO WE DON’T. In fact, Gallup data last year showed that PHARMA was the least-trusted industry in the US.

So, what can we do?

How can we start to regain trust?

FIrst, we need a reset at the appropriate time. When the vaccine is available for public use, we need a national town hall meeting to be held live. We need the scientists to spend time breaking down the process and why they feel it is safe. How was this different from the normal process? Why should people have confidence in this vaccine? And they need to do it in layman’s terms, same as we do with environmental communications.

Second, the scientists, company leadership and politicians should take it first, live.

Third, there should be complete transparency as the vaccination process unfolds. I see the accounting industry is the #5 most trusted industry, so the accountants would be responsible for a national dashboard that would track serious side effects. This provides confidence that we can stop if we have to…and know if we are getting what we promised.

Will this help? Depends on the objective. Will this convince everyone? No, of course not. Will people still say executives got a fake vaccine and the results are being hidden from us? Yes, they will. Guaranteed.

But we don’t dig out from this pandemic until there’s a cure or a vaccine. We are in a severe trust deficit and we need to begin a process of gaining people’s confidence, which might take months or years to critical mass. (And, think of the epic setback we will have if the first vaccine is unsafe).

To do that, we need to be transparent and empowering. We need to behave in a trustworthy manner (including not rushing an untested vaccine forward) and we need to communicate in an open way, even when it’s difficult.

Apply that process, month over month, and we might make some progress. If we don’t, we are millions of sick people away from herd immunity.