Online Event: Trusting a Covid-19 Vaccine: The Role of the Media and Misinformation

With continuing high numbers of Covid-19 cases and associated deaths across the United States, the rollout of novel coronavirus vaccines may offer a way to move beyond the worst effects of the pandemic. Demand for the vaccine has far outstripped supply in some areas, yet polls show that many Americans remain uncertain, their lack of confidence in the vaccines’ efficacy and safety fueled by misinformation. Please join the CSIS-LSHTM High-Level Panel on Vaccine Confidence and Misinformation on Wednesday, January 27 from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. EST for the third in a series of conversations about building trust in Covid-19 vaccines in the United States. This event will focus on the panel’s third recommendation from its recent Call to Action, urging traditional media outlets and social media companies to commit publicly to improving the information climate related to Covid-19 vaccines.

After brief framing remarks from Katherine E. Bliss, Senior Fellow with the CSIS Global Health Policy Center, Johnny Heald, Chief Executive Officer of ORB International, will provide a presentation on the public opinion climate and the influence of mis- and disinformation on vaccine acceptance. Following his remarks, James A. Lewis, Senior Vice President and Director of the CSIS Strategic Technologies Program, will moderate a discussion about what social media companies have done and could do to limit the amplification of misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines online. This expert panel will feature David A. Broniatowski, Associate Director of the Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics at the George Washington University, and Sarah Shirazyan, Content Policy Manager at Facebook, Inc. Heidi J. Larson, Panel Co-Chair, Professor of Anthropology, Risk, and Decision Science, and Director of the Vaccine Confidence Project™ at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; J. Stephen Morrison, Panel Co-Chair, Senior Vice President, and Director of the CSIS Global Health Policy Center; and Johnny Heald will also join as discussants.
 
The panel’s work is supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the foundation.