Developing and Delivering a Comprehensive Vaccine COVID-19 Program: RapidVax

 

RapidVax was developed in January 2021 to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates across Temple University’s College of Public Health (CPH) and communities in Philadelphia, including vaccine-hesitant individuals and marginalized groups with limited access to health services. To address the problems of access to vaccination, the CPH clinical team started to vaccinate the clinical-oriented faculty, staff, and students (N= 1,542, with 28.5% of ethnic minorities). As the vaccine rollout proceeded, the need to engage minorities and marginalized groups, as well as improve community access to vaccinations was recognized. A grant from the Philadelphia Department of Public Health allowed the RapidVax project to be scaled up as an interprofessional collaboration between nursing, social work, pharmacy, and public health practitioners, promising to achieve community immunity and decrease disparities in COVID-19 vaccination. Emphasizing community engagement, evidenced-based message design, communication distribution via social media sites and at community events, RapidVax was successfully implemented in Philadelphia communities. The project resulted in the delivery of vaccines to 2,685 individuals, 74.9% of whom were people of color and 16% of whom were homeless. The program was deployed in multiple locations, including the CPH – run Vaux clinic, offering regular hours for unscheduled walk – ins. Pop-up clinics were also offered in partnership with community organizations both within community center locations and public outdoor spaces. Next steps include continuing to build trust with communities through the CPH Vaux community clinic, enhancing community partnerships, and increasing social media engagement and community outreach to increase the vaccination rate among vaccine hesitant and unvaccinated people.