My project this summer aimed to address the problem of vaccine hesitancy in migrant communities with a collaborative and community-based approach. This work was carried out as part of the ‘COVID-19 Vaccine Migrant Community Network’, founded by the Health Service Executive (HSE) in collaboration with many migrant community organisations. I also had the opportunity to attend the Immunotherapy for Infectious Diseases Conference (IIDC) in Milan, an experience which enabled me to better address the complex question of vaccine hesitancy in this vulnerable group.

I travelled to Milan for the 2022 IIDC conference in Week 1 of my LiA experience. This was a comprehensive and influential conference, bringing together academia, small biotech, big pharma and regulatory bodies invested in the discovery of novel therapeutic strategies to combat infectious diseases. There was particular emphasis on the COVID-19 pandemic, and the importance of developing safe and effective vaccines in an efficient and time-sensitive manner. Over the course of the week, I had the opportunity to discuss my research on the T cell response to SARS-CoV-2 spike and nucleocapsid proteins, with leading immunologists and infectious disease experts. The topic of COVID-19 vaccine safety and efficacy also featured heavily over the course of the conference, which better informed the work I would do in relation to vaccine hesitancy and reduced vaccine uptake in vulnerable groups.

In the following weeks, after returning from the conference, I was introduced to colleagues in the HSE Communications Department and was informed on the work they had been doing up to that point. I also had the opportunity to hear from migrant community leaders, and was given valuable insight into the unique factors affecting vaccine uptake and confidence in their communities. I began working on developing the ‘COVID-19 Vaccine Migrant Community Network Toolkit’ which would be co-produced with migrant community leaders and act as a living document and an operational guide to provide practical support and strategies for understanding and addressing the unique barriers to COVID-19 vaccination that migrant communities may face.

The ‘COVID-19 Vaccine Migrant Community Network Toolkit’ was developed with contributions from the CDC, WHO and ECDC COVID-19 vaccine toolkits and handbooks. The toolkit serves to provide practical and accessible information about vaccine hesitancy and the different structural, behavioural and informational barriers to vaccination that community members may face. It also contains step-by-step information on building networks and initiating community-led action to address vaccine hesitancy and increase vaccine confidence. These include strategies for combating misinformation and creating awareness through small group discussions and one-to-one interactions.

Over the course of developing the toolkit, I had the opportunity to make contact with the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in relation to emerging data on vaccine uptake among migrant and refugee communities. This allowed me to gain a greater appreciation for statistical analysis and provided a valuable situation report for migrant community leaders. Also included in the toolkit were health service access information, COVID-19 vaccine rollout updates, and information on COVID-19 case, ICU and death numbers. This comprehensive situation report will hopefully prove to be a useful informational tool that can be regularly updated over the coming months.

Over the course of my LiA experience, regular meetings were held with the wider COVID-19 Vaccine Migrant Community Network to share updates on the work being done to date and to re-emphasise the importance of continued collaboration and partnership. Several community leaders delivered fascinating presentations on the important work that they have been carrying out over the course of the pandemic, and gave a unique insight into the different factors affecting vaccine hesitancy and uptake in their communities. These valuable contributions informed the framework of the toolkit and allowed me to structure the document in a way that would reflect their experience and provide practical advice and information.

Towards the end of my LiA experience, I had the opportunity to present the toolkit at the September COVID-19 Vaccine Migrant Community Network meeting. This allowed me to give an executive summary of the toolkit’s contents to community stakeholders and to highlight areas where their continued input would be hugely valuable. During the meeting, Dr. Chantal Migone, a Public Health Medicine Specialist, emphasised the importance of increasing routine childhood vaccination uptake in migrant and refugee populations, and that the learnings from the COVID-19 Vaccine Migrant Community Network can hopefully be employed to address this important issue.

Overall, my Leadership in Action project has been a fantastic experience and one that has pushed me outside of my comfort zone. Hopefully, moving forward, the work that I undertook as part of the network can be built upon for the benefit of future vaccine networks and initiatives.