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Quartz: What are the best approaches to engage the vaccine-hesitant now?

From Quartz: As of Aug. 9, just half of Americans are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 putting the US far behind other developed countries.

Whether you’ve personally lobbied vaccine-hesitant friends and family or are merely shaking a fist at the horrifying news out of hospitals filling up fast again in places like Texas and Florida, it has probably dawned on you that there is no silver bullet that will nudge large numbers of the unvaccinated to roll up their sleeves.

Instead, behavioral scientists say it needs to be a multi-pronged approach that could include a broad array of tactics, including mandates in workplaces, government incentives such as direct payments, and the threat of having to pay more for health insurance when you decide to resist vaccination.

Employer mandates also give cover to people who thus far have been unwilling to get inoculated because of social pressure, says Alison Buttenheim, a public health and behavior science researcher at the University of Pennsylvania who has spent years studying vaccine hesitancy.

“If you’re in a community where people aren’t getting vaccinated and people might look at you funny if you do, or you’re not really supposed to talk about it,” she says, people can tell their friends or family, “My job is requiring it. I’m just going to do it because I want to keep this job.”

Read the full story in Quartz. 

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