ABSTRACT
Introduction: The WHO SAGE Vaccine Hesitancy Matrix provides vaccine hesitancy solutions based on contextual influences, individual and group influences, and vaccine/vaccination-specific issues. There are limited studies about the impact of using this matrix on high school students to improve their COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy rates. Research Question or Hypothesis: Can an interprofessional, interactive vaccine hesitancy program change high school student's knowledge of and attitudes for the COVID-19 vaccine? Study Design: Pre-post interventional study. Method(s): An panel of healthcare providers, public health workers, teachers, and religious leaders implemented an interactive curriculum about scientific findings on COVID-19 vaccines, recognizing misinformation, and overcoming COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy for underrepresented high school students using matrix principles. Afterwards, participants designed two videos featuring different topics to improve vaccine confidence. Students also applied the principles learned at a COVID-19 pharmacy vaccination clinic event to address vaccinerelated misconceptions in the community. Entry and exit surveys for the participants were collected on a 5-point Likert scale. The McNemar test was used to evaluate changes from non-preferred to preferred responses with an alpha of 0.05. Result(s): Forty-five students (38% 10th grade, 40% 11th grade, 48% Caucasian, 33% African-American) participated in the 4-month program. Significantly more students agreed in post-tests, chi2(1, N = 31) = 4.167, p = 0.0412, that: "I have adequate knowledge about SARSCoV- 2 disease." More students agreed in post-tests, chi2(1, N = 31) = 6.750, p = 0.0094, that: "I have adequate knowledge about the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine." Overall, 25 students (64%) agreed that "I have talked to my peers about information I learned during the program". Finally, 20 students (51%) agreed that "I am comfortable serving as a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine ambassador where I can promote the SARSCoV- 2 vaccine to my community." Conclusion(s): This program increased the knowledge and attitudes of underserved students in vaccine hesitancy while being actively engaged in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic that was disproportionately affecting their community.
ABSTRACT
Background Most cancer vaccines will not generate high levels of T-cell immunity with only one immunization. Even vaccines against foreign antigens, such as COVID, may require three or four immunizations spaced some months apart to achieve protective levels of immunity in cancer patients. The use of cancer vaccines in the therapeutic setting, as single agents or as part of a combination regimen to treat established cancers, would require high levels of T-cells to be generated quickly. We evaluated immunization schedules with a 5-antigen, multiepitope plasmid DNA vaccine, STEMVAC, targeting cancer stem cell associated proteins. The vaccine is immunogenic in patients with advanced breast cancer (NCT02157051) and the majority of patients can develop high levels of STEMVAC specific type I T-cells after 3 priming and 2 booster immunizations. Using a murine model, we questioned whether we could more rapidly achieve high levels of antigen specific Type I T-cells with STEMVAC immunization. Methods Six-week-old FVB mice were used for experiments. A dose of 300ug of STEMVAC plasmid with 5ug of rm-GMCSF as an adjuvant was given in 4 immunizations using three different schedules;(1) every 3-4 days, (2) once a week, and (3) every 2 weeks (standard). Immunogenicity was evaluated two weeks after the last vaccine using IFN-gamma ELISPOT quantitating responses to each of the 5 antigens in the vaccine. Parameters studied included magnitude, incidence, and breadth of the T-cell response. Ten mice were included/group with empty plasmid and PBS as controls. Results All three immunization schedules could generate a significant IFN-gamma response to at least one of the antigens encoded in STEMVAC as compared to controls. Vaccines given every two weeks elicited the greatest magnitude immune response among the three schedules (vs. 3-4 days, p=0.001;vs. 1 week, p=0.01). Of note, although the total magnitude of immune response elicited was lower, the weekly immunization schedule resulted in a significantly greater number of mice responding to vaccination as well as a greater breadth of response with all mice responding to at least 2 antigens and 50% to 3-5 antigens. Conclusions Varying the time between immunizations can significantly impact the quality of the T-cell response to a mulitantigen plasmid-based vaccine. Further studies are ongoing to correlate these differences to anti-tumor activity.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The American Society of Hospital Pharmacists has advocated that pharmacist expand their roles in the COVID-19 pandemic by participating in immunizations, point-of-care testing, direct patient care services, and emergency response planning and coordination. While most universities teach students about public health emergency preparedness in the curriculum, there is limited information to determine if students are prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic. Research Question or Hypothesis: Are pharmacy students prepared to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in a clinical or logistical role? Study Design: Cross-sectional study measuring pharmacy students' COVID-19 emergency readiness. Methods: A 30-item online questionnaire was e-mailed to first and second-year pharmacy students in a concentrated curriculum. Questions assessed participant's knowledge and confidence to perform COVID-19 related tasks. Descriptive analyses were reported for the differences in emergency preparedness readiness. Categorical data was analyzed using chi-square tests with a 95% confidence interval on Minitab®. Results: Forty-five students completed the survey with a 59.2% response rate. Overall, 36 (80%) students reported they were confident in assisting with COVID-19 emergency response planning and coordination. Thirty-three students (73.3%) reported they were confident serving in a clinical or logistical role during the COVID-19 pandemic. Only 14 (31%) of students reported they sufficient knowledge of how to treat and mange patients with confirmed COVID-19 infections. This group was more likely to be comfortable interacting with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients (P= 0.02). Students reported the biggest challenge when delivering COVID-19 pharmacy services to be a lack of information, exposure risk, and the public not following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines. Race, gender, class year, healthcare experience, and medium of COVID-19 education were not factors that correlated with confidence to perform COVID-19 related tasks (P>0.05). Conclusion: Pharmacy schools should implement more training and instruction about COVID-19 emergency preparedness to improve pharmacy students' capability during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ABSTRACT
The novel coronavirus epidemic has led to an unprecedented concern regarding public security. Communities, as the basic units of social governance, play a prominent role during this period. However, little is known about the relationship between residents' sense of public security and their community environment in the existing geography and planning literature. To fill this gap in the research, this paper builds a theoretical framework to identify personal and community-level factors that influence the sense of public security. Based on a large-scale survey conducted in Beijing in 2019, we use multilevel linear models to analyze how and to what extent personal and community features impact this sense. The results show that (1) most of the personal attributes have significant effects on the sense of public security. Those who are older or less healthy are more likely to report a lower sense of security, and residents with lower incomes or education levels are also liable to suffer from insecurity. Stable employment has a positive effect on people's sense of security, and unemployed people report the lowest sense of security compared to others. Migrants feel safer than local residents, the main reason is that they compared their current city with their hometown and found Beijing to be much safer. (2) There is significant difference in residents' sense of public security across communities. The model results suggest that a built environment with a denser population and a bus route has a negative effect on the sense of security, while open space with more road crossings can improve residents' safety perception. Additionally, residents will feel more secure if their community gets closer to type I emergency shelters and hospitals. However, the influences of small- and medium-sized facilities are not significant, such as type II/III emergency shelters and community healthcare centers. (3) The social environment of the community plays a more important role in promoting residents' sense of public security than the built environment. However, it is found that renters can hardly benefit from the improvement of property management. Based on these findings, the paper provides some suggestions for improving the community's safety and resilience. © 2021, Science Press. All right reserved.