The town is soliciting bids from local media companies for a campaign to educate New Canaanites about vaccinations and convince more people to get them.
The request for proposals for a “Media Campaign to Promote Vaccination and Immunization” was issued Jan. 16 and responses are due Feb. 1, officials say.
The RFP and future campaign is part of an overall $48,000 Immunizations Grant from the state Department of Public Health, according to New Canaan Health Director Jenn Eielson.
About $30,000 of that total is being used to cover part-time public health nurses to administer vaccinations, among other duties, “and $17206 must be used for the media campaign,” Eielson told members of the Board of Selectmen last week.
“There is no way around that,” Eielson said during the selectmen’s Jan. 23 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “We just did the RFP. Thank you to [town Grant Writer] Greg [Reilly] for helping me edit it and giving me the local media contacts. He’s been great dealing with that.”
Viewable here via the “Bid Notices” button on the town website, the RFP calls for “innovative and experienced partners to collaborate with the Town in creating a strategic, effective and impactful media campaign that will increase awareness, education and, potentially, the uptake of vaccinations in New Canaan, ultimately contributing to improved public health outcomes.”
The funding came to the state DPH from the CDC, and once the bid process closes, “we’ll finish selecting whoever and we left it where we can select multiple [companies] if needed,” Eielson said.
Her comments came during a summary of the Health Department’s work, as part of a budget presentation to the Board of Selectmen.
Though “New Canaan has had great success in immunization rates for all vaccines,” the RFP says, this year saw “a significant decrease in flu immunization rates and COVID-19 booster rates.”
“The goal of the media campaign is to provide factual data to dispel myths around immunizations and thus boost immunization rates for all vaccines,” the RFP said.
It continued: “The primary objective of this project is to develop and implement a media campaign that effectively communicates the importance of vaccinations, dispels myths and misconceptions to the New Canaan market, and encourages individuals and families to take proactive steps toward immunization. The campaign may aim to reach diverse demographics within New Canaan, address vaccine hesitancy, and promote a positive narrative around vaccines and immunizations.”
Respondents are asked to provide a “detailed plan outlining your approach, methodology and timeline for the proposed media campaign under four different budget scenarios” for amounts totaling $17,000, $8,500, $5,600 and $4,250.
Responsibilities will include “developing a comprehensive media strategy addressing the campaign’s goals, target audience, messaging, and key performance indicators of Impressions, Reach and Clicks”; “Designing creative and engaging multimedia content (videos, infographics, social media posts, etc.) tailored to various platforms and demographics”; “Executing the media campaign across multiple channels, as available, including, but not limited to, online platforms, print, social media, television, and / or radio”; and “Conducting assessments and evaluations to measure the campaign’s effectiveness and impact on attitudes and behaviors related to immunization,” according to the RFP.
People have seen & heard more than enough about this.
Pushing harder will likely have the opposite effect.
Save the $50k.
Agree with the above. Infection rates have declined. The therapeutics are now commonplace and working. Lets move on.
This is a great initiative. Besides covid vaccines (which have inexplicably become a political third rail), vaccinations for flu, RSV and shingles (among others) are so important. And if out health department can provide these to residents, all the better. Thanks to Jenn E and the rest of the health department for all of their hard work!
I don’t know. Feels kind of heavy-handed.
It’s a shame we can’t reroute these funds toward preventative/lifestyle medicine initiatives. Because there’s no better way to fight viruses and prevent disease than to have a healthy immune system.
Vaccines are preventative medicine.
Here is a good place to start in terms of public education on vaccination rates in New Canaan https://data.ct.gov/stories/s/School-Immunization-Survey-Data/n5kk-6ext/. My guess is the South School data is a bit optimistic.
Thank you for posting! I think it is important to look at data (understanding it isn’t always perfect, but directionally correct) and compare YOY as well as where we are in comparison to other towns!
Covid-19 has exhausted itself and is no longer a pandemic level disease. We should not push Covid-19 vaccines to the people anymore, especially to the healthy community. This is important because the long-term effects of these vaccines have not been tested due to the pandemic emergency and the manufacturers were all given immunity from liability from the federal government if anything went wrong. Leave it to seniors and those with pre-existing conditions to make a choice.
I have Covid right now, and athough I’m not elderly and don’t have preexisting conditions, it’s no picnic. I am living proof that it hasn’t “exhausted itself.” For the past year or so, communication from officials has been pretty inconsistent about when and where various vaccine boosters are available and who should have them. Of course, you’re free to believe whatever antivaxxer propaganda you wish, but it’s a silly overreach to say that relevant preventitive health information should be kept from people.