The MESA Group received the Vaccine Confidence Fund (VCF) grant to study narratives of vaccine confidence among marginalized migrants in the United States. VCF is the first flagship program of the Alliance for Advancing Health Online (AAHO). As one of 33 organizations that received VCF grants totaling over $7 million, the MESA Group aspires to address the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 among marginalized migrant populations, as well as the lack of research on vaccine confidence among these populations. 

The initial phase builds a database of posts authored by members of the US migrant community using Facebook Graph API, the data will then be mined and processed using a variety of data science and systems-theory-guided techniques to extract and model posts containing expressions of vaccine confidence. Mined data will concurrently undergo narrative analysis, identifying the specific features and story structures migrants use when expressing vaccine confidence.

The second phase of the project features in-depth interviews with marginalized migrants in the Stillwater, Oklahoma area, and surrounding region, to qualitatively validate and further explore the identified features and story structures of vaccine confidence. Our research team has prior experience working directly with this specific marginalized migrant community.

Finally, the third phase uses the previous analyses to design narratives expressing vaccine confidence. These narratives will be post-tested through a nation-wide survey. Survey respondents will be recruited through existing migrant community contacts, migrant-serving organizations and Facebook ads targeting migrant communities.

For more information on the VCF grants, read the press release.