We Must Continue the Fight Against the Pandemic by covidatos alaska
Over the last few months, we have led a project called COVIDatos Alaska, with financing from the Anchorage Municipality and United Way of Anchorage. This project had a clear mission: combating disinformation in Spanish about COVID-19, which had become prevalent in social media and had prevented people in our community from following safety guidelines or getting vaccinated, despite the vaccine being considered the best way to prevent severe COVID cases by the scientific consensus.
When we began the project, the Latino community in Alaska was markedly behind other ethnic groups regarding vaccination rates. Part of the reason for this was the lack of information campaigns in Spanish. In many situations, Spanish content was just an afterthought or was found on hard-to-reach websites. We wanted to make a difference.
For the last 9 months, we have created content that would resonate with Spanish-speaking audiences, both on social media, television, and radio and that would lead them to our resource websites. We achieved a balance between vaccination promotion and the diffusion of educational content. Beyond reminding about the importance of vaccines, we also explained the variants and their differences, the effects of Long Covid, and even techniques to detect disinformation.
The result has been effective. In the last 90 days, for instance, our content has reached over 72,000 accounts in Alaskan Spanish-speaking accounts. This reach is amplified when you consider our radio and television efforts. Furthermore, vaccination rates in the Latino community have increased and we believe our work has helped. Even though our project is ending, COVID-19 cases rise again, so our conclusion is not a signal to lower the guard. We must keep the safety measures and invite those who haven’t yet, to get vaccinated because together, we can end this pandemic.
