The COVID-19 Booster’s Public Relations Problem

4 Ways the U.S. Failed COVID-19 Vaccine Messaging With a new coronavirus booster rolling out, a leading expert on vaccines explains how public health leaders have struggled to set expectations for the COVID-19 vaccine and convey clearly who benefits from each additional shot. Robin Fields ProPublica

With the rollout this month of a new coronavirus booster, U.S. public health leaders once more face the challenge of persuading Americans that they should roll up their sleeves and get another, possibly better, shot targeted at the omicron strain.

This has become tougher with each successive vaccination campaign.

About 68% of the U.S. population has received either two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines or one dose of Johnson & Johnson, but only one-third has chosen to get a booster. In Canada, much of Europe, Japan and South Korea, people have chosen to get additional doses at far higher rates.

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This time around, the messaging also needs to overcome the publicly expressed qualms of some notable vaccine experts.

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