Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 May 23;23(1):932.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-15861-y.

Unintended consequences of communicating rapid COVID-19 vaccine policy changes- a qualitative study of health policy communication in Ontario, Canada

Elizabeth Vernon-Wilson  1 , Moses Tetui  2   3 , Agnes Nanyonjo  4 , Maisha Adil  2 , Arthi Bala  2 , David Nelson  4 , Emma Sayers  4 , Nancy Waite  2 , Kelly Grindrod  2
Affiliations

Unintended consequences of communicating rapid COVID-19 vaccine policy changes- a qualitative study of health policy communication in Ontario, Canada

Elizabeth Vernon-Wilson et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: The success of the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out depended on clear policy communication and guidance to promote and facilitate vaccine uptake. The rapidly evolving pandemic circumstances led to many vaccine policy amendments. The impact of changing policy on effective vaccine communication and its influence in terms of societal response to vaccine promotion are underexplored; this qualitative research addresses that gap within the extant literature.

Methods: Policy communicators and community leaders from urban and rural Ontario participated in semi-structured interviews (N = 29) to explore their experiences of COVID-19 vaccine policy communication. Thematic analysis was used to produce representative themes.

Results: Analysis showed rapidly changing policy was a barrier to smooth communication and COVID-19 vaccine roll-out. Continual amendments had unintended consequences, stimulating confusion, disrupting community outreach efforts and interrupting vaccine implementation. Policy changes were most disruptive to logistical planning and community engagement work, including community outreach, communicating eligibility criteria, and providing translated vaccine information to diverse communities.

Conclusions: Vaccine policy changes that allow for prioritized access can have the unintended consequence of limiting communities' access to information that supports decision making. Rapidly evolving circumstances require a balance between adjusting policy and maintaining simple, consistent public health messages that can readily be translated into action. Information access is a factor in health inequality that needs addressing alongside access to vaccines.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Policy change; Public health communication; Vaccination policy; Vaccine confidence; Vaccine hesitancy; Vaccine inequity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study participants' roles in communicating COVID-19 vaccine policy
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Major themes and sub-themes arising from data collected about response to COVID-19 vaccine policy communication
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Bardosh K, de Figueiredo A, Gur-Arie R, Jamrozik E, Doidge J, Lemmens T, et al. The unintended consequences of COVID-19 policy: why mandates, passports and restrictions may cause more harm than good. Brit Med J Glob Health. 2022;7:e008684. doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2022-008684. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Schaffer DeRoo S, Pudalov NJ, Fu LY. Planning for a COVID-19 Vaccination Program. JAMA. 2020;323(24):2458–2459. doi: 10.1001/jama.2020.8711. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Henry B, Gadient S. Canada’s pandemic vaccine strategy Canada Communicable Disease Report; Ottawa 2017; 43(7/8):164–167. 10.14745/ccdr.v43i78a05 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Falkenbach M, Willison C. Resources or trust: What matters more in the vaccination strategies of high-income liberal democracies? Health Policy Technol. 2022;11:100618–110627. doi: 10.1016/j.hlpt.2022.100618. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nan X, Iles IA, Yang B, Ma Z. Public Health Messaging during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond: Lessons from Communication Science. Health Commun. 2022;37(1):1–19. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2021.1994910. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

Substances