Could text messages nudge people toward COVID vaccines? Not here, but it might be bad timing

Text messages to people who are reluctant to get their flu shots—or simply forget—have helped boost uptake in the past, but these “nudges” didn't move the needle when it came to COVID vaccines. That’s the conclusion in a new report from Brown University’s Policy Lab, published in Nature on Wednesday. Researchers found that text message reminders sent out to unvaccinated Rhode Islanders in late spring 2021 didn’t increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake. The problem was not the texts themselves, however, the report’s authors argue. It was bad timing: By the time unvaccinated people in the Ocean State received the nudges in May 2021, most state residents had been able to get a shot for months.