Vaccination campaign messages often prove ineffective

The research team at the TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology showed that vaccination campaigns often have overly undifferentiated messages. Image: Andreas Heddergott / TUM - Conventional vaccination campaign messages often miss their targets. A study in eight European countries shows that information on the benefits of vaccines can even reduce the willingness to get immunized. The researchers also looked into the factors that influenced the impact of messages, including low health literacy. A further study provides indications of the relationship between trust in vaccines and their approval procedures. Not many Covid-19 vaccination campaigns in Europe lived up to the hopes of the public health authorities. However, the results of past studies in various countries have yielded a mixed picture as to which communication strategies can increase vaccine uptake and which factors undermine certain messages.