Submission ID 131796
| Issue/Objective | Innovative mRNA technologies are instrumental tools in pandemic preparedness and response, from rapid vaccine development against emerging zoonotic pathogens to tailored cancer treatments. During COVID-19, rapid sociopolitical shifts and prolonged public health measures were associated with vaccine fatigue and hesitancy, connected to broader narratives of rising distrust in government and science. This research examined the relationship between public sentiments on vaccines and healthy public trust, using mRNA therapeutics as an example and situated in the context of pandemic readiness. |
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| Methodology/Approach | We used a sequential dialogue design to invite people with diverse perspectives into collective reflection on what the example of mRNA vaccines reveals about building healthy public trust. Contributors (n=96) included power holders, system leaders, scientists, knowledge mobilizers, and people affected by COVID-19 in vaccine promotion, acceptance, or decision-making roles, including: medical professionals, bench scientists, public health leaders, journalists, youth, long-COVID advocates, and industry representatives across Canada. |
| Results | Contributors reflected that rebuilding trust requires recognizing vaccine sentiments as sociopolitical issues that demands multisectoral, multi-scalar efforts. Critical factors affecting trust included: rapidly shifting geopolitical landscapes; pressure and challenges about data sharing and transparency; skepticism about who benefits from public-private partnerships; and fractures in social cohesion. Contributors identified gaps in health, digital, and scientific literacy as priorities, and called for vaccine efforts to address both acceptability and accessibility simultaneously. They called for changes to the scope and location of public health, particularly in strengthening community engagement and strategically navigating social media as a trust-influencing environment. Building healthy public trust, they argued, requires important shifts in who is engaged, how they are engaged, and how accountability is collectively defined. |
| Discussion/Conclusion | Building healthy public trust is both a pathway to stronger public health and pivotal to pandemic readiness. Rebuilding trust is possible when efforts focus on strengthening relationships across sectors, jurisdictions, and communities. What we need to build trust and what we need to be pandemic ready are mutually reinforcing and both invite a broadened understanding of where public health belongs and to whom it is accountable. |
| Presenters and Affiliations | Rodrigo Curty Pereira Equity Science Lab (University of British Columbia) Katrina Plamondon University of British Columbia Angeli Rawat Equity Science Lab (University of British Columbia) Amy Sanderson Equity Science Lab (University of British Columbia) Jenna Dixon Equity Science Lab (University of British Columbia) |
