HHS Launches National Vaccine Advertising Campaign with YouTube Ads



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The ads, which will be shown on the video platform, include clips of a six-minute and 30-second public service announcement video featuring Dr.Anthony Fauci, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn and Operation Warp Speed ​​Chief Scientific Advisor Dr Moncef Slaoui explains how vaccines are approved, how they have beaten diseases like smallpox and polio in the past, and how this vaccine can help states United in defeating the coronavirus pandemic. The announcements will be linked to the full video with Fauci and other health officials.

HHS plans to spend $ 250 million on a nationwide education campaign to promote the vaccine in the coming weeks. The ads, which will begin next week, will be featured on digital and social media platforms. The aim of the campaign is to help “prepare the nation for the vaccine when it is available for public distribution across states,” according to an administration official.

Planning for an education awareness advertising campaign began over the summer, but became controversial when the federal government plans to spend $ 15 million on a celebrity-fueled advertising campaign aimed at “overcoming”. the desperation ”around the coronavirus has become public. Democrats have criticized the idea as an effort to promote President Donald Trump ahead of the election.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar told Congress he had ordered “a strategic review of the public health education campaign” in response to questions about the original plans for a more influencer-focused strategy at the time. of a congressional hearing on October 2. The review was completed by the department on November 13.

The department has now shifted its advertising strategy to a more “scientific” approach and is working on a “creative new strategy” for “vaccine acceptance based on focus groups, public surveys and secondary research,” said one. responsible for administration.

Health officials have expressed concerns that there was no national education or advertising campaign in place to help promote safe vaccines, offer information, and temper expectations about the drug. when people can expect to receive a vaccine.

“For this administration, the vaccine was the silver bullet. But they don’t tell people they have to be patient,” said a health official in contact with Operation Warp Speed. “What happens when crowds of people show up on December 15 asking for the vaccine? That’s why we need an educational component.”

Much of the Trump administration’s coronavirus strategy has focused on the rapid development and distribution of a coronavirus vaccine. The administration has been reluctant to implement other public health measures that have been advised, such as a national mask warrant and increased arrest measures, to tackle the growing number of Covid-19 cases in the States of the country.

But as deadlines for the FDA to issue emergency use authorizations for Pfizer and Moderna vaccines quickly approach, the administration’s strategy to educate the public about vaccines has lagged behind.

A vaccine is an effective public health strategy. It has almost eliminated diseases like smallpox and polio, and it has reduced the number of other serious diseases around the world. But the key to using a vaccine to fight a highly contagious disease like the coronavirus is that everyone has to take it so that a large population will develop immunity to it.

“One of the great triumphs of medical science in the treatment of infectious diseases has been vaccination. It has saved hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of lives,” Facui said in the PSA video.

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