Five Thoughts on the State of COVID-19 Vaccination and the Road Ahead

This is a confusing time in the public health emergency. Americans are thinking less about COVID-19 on a daily basis and many are eager to move on. But COVID-19 hasn’t gone away, as evidenced by quick spread of the new variant, and it will continue to be part of our lives for the foreseeable future. Getting more Americans vaccinated against the virus will help to move us out of the pandemic stage. We can do this by sharing the right message and using trusted messengers on multiple platforms. This is the focus of the AHA’s vaccine confidence initiative, supported by $3 million in grant funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). One of us is president of a hospital in North Carolina and has a background in family medicine and rural health. The other is chief marketing and experience officer for a health system in Louisiana. At the AHA Leadership Summit last month we offered our thoughts on the vaccine and the road ahead. Here are five highlights: