One of the greatest — though least discussed — challenges of the pandemic has been effective public health communication. Giving people too little information risks anti-vaccine forces swooping in to fill the information void with falsehoods. “Communications is always the forgotten cousin in public health,” said Angus Thomson, a social scientist at the United Nations Children Fund who studies vaccine demand. The Children’s Health Defense typically cites accurate statistics from the VAERS database in misleading newsletter headlines. As Hidalgo adopted this new strategy, one vaccine-hesitant Instagram follower began sending her direct messages with questions about the virus and vaccine.
