West Lafayette, Ind. (WLFI) – A partnership between Purdue Extension and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working to address vaccine hesitancy across the State of Indiana, and two local counties are areas of focus.
The partnership began last May, and the goal is to provide accurate information about the COVID-19 vaccine to parts of the state with high Spanish-speaking populations.
Through the partnership, Purdue Extension is focusing on five counties, and Cass County and Clinton County are two of them. The office is reaching people in part through an advertising campaign on the music streaming service, Pandora.
The advertisements link to a Purdue website, which automatically opens in Spanish.
The website provides people with information and resources about the COVID-19 vaccine.
Angie Abbott is the Associate Director of Purdue Extension. She says these efforts are key to ensuring people are comfortable with the information they are receiving about the vaccines.
“We all receive messages in different ways, and certainly we want people to feel that those messages come from trusted individuals,” Abbott said. “People are getting their questions answered in a way that they can understand, which is really important.”
Abbott says the work in these counties not only addresses issues with the current pandemic, but it will also help prepare these communities for whatever health-related questions arise in the future.
The Purdue website also gives people access to videos of Spanish-speaking healthcare professionals who live in their communities. The providers answer common questions about the vaccine and provide additional resources for people who have other questions.
Abbott says the videos are a great way to help busy healthcare workers reach critical demographics.
“This has been a great way for us to sort of steal a little bit of the healthcare providers’ time, ask these questions for them to answer, and then we spread those answers widely,” Abbott said.
Abbott says while there is currently no data to track how many people the ad campaign is reaching, that information will come once the partnership with the CDC officially concludes in the spring.
The Purdue Extension site can be found here.
