Funding Proposal - Vaccines

Statement of Need:

The recent trend of parents' refusal to vaccinate their children has led to a resurgence of diseases such as polio, measles, mumps, rubella and whooping cough around the world.  In 2012, for example, the United Kingdom reported over 2000 measles cases, the most since 1994, while France reported nearly 15,000 cases in 2011.  In countries such as Pakistan, when public health workers have been harassed and killed for promoting vaccinations, polio is now an epidemic.  The United States has also experienced a resurgence of whooping cough and measles.

Many parents have chosen not to vaccinate their children because of a now-discredited study linking vaccinations to autism.  Celebrity advocates such as Jenny McCarthy have used the results of this study to support their claims that vaccinations cause autism, and to push for eliminating mandatory vaccination laws in the U.S.  As a result, communities across the U.S. where large clusters of children have not been vaccinated have experienced outbreaks of measles and whooping cough, and the possibility that polio might re-emerge in the U.S. is very real.  The CDC states that "In the United States, among children born during 1994–2013, vaccination will prevent an estimated 322 million illnesses, 21 million hospitalizations, and 732,000 deaths during their lifetimes"  

It is clear that U.S. parents and public policy officials need to have more and better information regarding vaccinations.  This information needs to be simple, factually-based and constantly updated.  The best way to do this will be through a social media campaign.

Goals:

The broad goals of our program are to increase public awareness of the real scientific facts regarding vaccinations, and with that increased public awareness, to increase the actual percentage of children receiving vaccinations in the U.S.  Our specific goals are as follows:

1. To increase the percentage of Americans who think it is safe to vaccinate children from 83% to 95% by the year 2020.

2. To encourage more local, state and federal government laws to align vaccination laws and policies to actual scientific research. 

3. To increase the percentage of children vaccinated against diseases, including polio, measles, mumps, rubella and whooping cough, from the current 90% to 95% by 2020.

4. To decrease the incidence of vaccine-preventable disease in the U.S. by 20% by the year 2020.

In order to measure these goals, our organization will:

1. Survey parents annually.  The survey will ask about actual knowledge of vaccinations, about attitudes and options regarding vaccinations, and whether respondents have actually had their own children vaccinated.   

2. Review local, state and federal government laws across the country every two years.  This information will be summarized to show where public information campaigns should be targeted.

3. Review annual data from the CDC regarding the percentage of children vaccinated AND the number of reported cases of vaccine-preventable disease, and include that data on social media, websites and promotional materials.

Proposed Actions

In order to meet our goals, our group plans to use targeted social media and marketing through radio ads, backed by scientific research, to educate more parents and policy makers.  By influencing parent perceptions and by giving policy makers the best, most understandable information possible, we will influence pereceptions AND practice in regard to childhood vaccinations in the U.S. 

1. Contract with a social media promotion company to set up and update a resource website, as well as create Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media accounts as necessary for the promotion of simple, clear, scientifically-based information about vaccination benefits and facts.  

2. Hire a part-time consultant with a public-health and research background to assist with design of the social media program AND to review recent and updated information regarding vaccination and vaccine-preventable disease in the U.S.

3. Sponsor radio ads to inform people about the facts regarding vaccination, and to direct parents and the public to our group's website and and social media pages.  Radio ads will be targeted towards those states and communities where fewer vaccinations take place and where vaccine-preventable diseases have already emerged, including California and Texas.  In addition, the media campaign will target radio stations and programs whose listeners tend more to disbelieve the facts about vaccinations.

4. Distribute information via social media and printed materials to local, state and federal government officials.  Information will point officials towards current research and knowledge about vaccinations and vaccine-preventable diseases.  

5. Survey parents and review data to make adjustments with public-info campaigns as needed.

Proposed Budget:

Our budget proposal will cover five years of specific actions and strategies.  The main expenses will be for the social media company and for the public-health consultant.  The first year of our public information program will be the most expensive, as the website and social media programs are designed and launched.  Once those have been launched, our group will pay much lower annual fees for the social media and public health consultants to maintain the program.  

Other first-year, one-time costs will include production of radio ads and design of the annual surveys and printed information. Costs for those items will also go down after the first year, since the ad and survey will already have been created.

Specific costs are as follows:

Total Cost for our group's plan: $258,000.  We plan to solicit the additional funds needed from the Gates Foundation and the Kresge Foundation.