Communicating the science behind how COVID-19 vaccines keep us safe

What motivated you to create this video, did your work or personal experience play a role?

Claudia Linker: It was late December, the days were dark and cold, COVID-19 cases were rising and the health system was sounding alarm bells. After a calm summer and with the children back in school, it seemed the storm was upon us again and fear was palpable.

Being the closest biologist at hand I was receiving a lot of questions about what was happening. Family, neighbours, school parents, people at the corner shop - all had ‘simple’ questions and most of them were not sure where to find the answers, or what to believe. I was very happy to explain and quickly realised that public understanding of the science behind COVID-19 infection was very important. ‘What do we know?’ And equally as important: ‘What we do not know?’

It was also clear to me that vaccination was the only way out of this crisis, and I was jubilant about the speed at which vaccines were being developed. But my joy and hope soon collided with a barrage of anxious questions and doubts. I quickly realised most of these questions were coming from an innocent lack of understanding of the science, which lead to suspicion and fear. I also realized that many things I thought were obvious, like what an antibody is or the meaning of efficacy, were anything but clear. Something had to be done! But what, when and how?

I am a lecturer, so my instinct was to put together a couple of explanatory slides. At this point I contacted Dr Lorena Marchant, a biochemist with whom I have worked over the years and Alicia Scherson, who is a long-standing friend from my undergraduate years and now a recognized film director. The idea was to make this project a reality by sharing our expertise and the workload. From there the project grew and developed. It has been a revelation in many aspects. I thought explaining the science was the most, almost the only, important issue. I soon discovered that concepts like connection and values were as important for the delivery of a powerful message. It has been a very interesting journey and I have been bewildered by people’s generosity and enthusiasm. I have also learnt how enriching it is to work as a team of equals - this is by far the most collaborative project I been involved in.

Alicia Scherson: I studied biological sciences before becoming a filmmaker but this is the first time I’ve made a project that combines the two. I usually create only fiction films, so when Claudia invited me to collaborate I watched a lot of educational videos about vaccines online to get inspired. But I found that most of them were not very engaging visually or narratively. As a result I decided to include some narrative components and a bit of humour to make the video more fun to watch, but still keeping it scientifically accurate. The interdisciplinarity here worked well as the scientists, medical doctors, journalists and filmmakers involved all had a lot to contribute to the project.

^{A still from the video}

Claudia, How has your work at King’s influenced the creation and content of this video?

CL: Being part of King’s has been really important. Not only have I been able to tap into the public recognition and the weight the institution carries, but I have had the support of the people within King’s. Everyone has been very encouraging, ready to help and happy to work with us. All my colleagues, at the Randall and beyond, have been vital to the success of this project.

Where will the video be released and shown?

CL: At the moment we have secured distribution in the UK, Chile and Iraq, but we hope the clip will travel far and wide. With this in mind we have made all the audio in voice over format, making translation easier. We have also made a sign language translation for the Spanish version and hope to create a similar one for English.

The video will be released in the UK through King’s, King’s Health partners and the Medway Council, for the moment. In Chile, the clip will be part of the COVID-19 information resource of the University of Chile and will be distributed through the Primary Health Care network. Moreover, recently we entered into an agreement with the Chilean TV channels to distribute it on open TV and not only through the internet. This is especially important in Chile where not everyone has good internet access and where, in many rural areas, open TV is still the main source of information.

In Iraq we have an agreement with UTVIraq to distribute the video as part of its daily programs.

One of your key target audiences is Chileans – how has the country handled the pandemic so far, and what attitudes do people have towards vaccines?

AS: The pandemic has been very difficult to manage because lockdowns are very difficult to maintain in a country with high levels of poverty and a fragile social security system. People need to get out and work in order to feed their families. Luckily, we have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world so far because we started early with a lot of vaccines bought from Sinovac. The elderly responded in high rates but now that we are vaccinating in the age range of 50-45 the rates have decreased significatively, and we are more than 1 million people behind the program. There is not enough understanding of the public health component of the vaccination, and the video tries to enforce that - the solidarity and empathy involved in the decision to get vaccinated

What kind of impact are you hoping the video will have on those who view it?

CL: We hope the video will clear doubts, decrease anxiety and unveil a bit of the mystery surrounding COVID-19. Hopefully it will show that scientific concepts, as complex as these can be, are accessible to everyone. And most importantly, we hope it will encourage people to get vaccinated and maintain all necessary measures to decrease transmission.

AS: To clear up some myths about the relation between vaccines, capitalism and the pharmaceutical industry, by showing a bit of vaccination history. Also to insist on the fact that you don't vaccinate individuals but populations, and that - even if it is a personal decision - it is one that affects those around you and all humankind.

What’s next?

AS: At Universidad de Chile, the video will be part of a larger campaign called Movimiento empatia, that will continue to provide scientific and public health information to the community during the pandemic. In this context it's possible to produce more short videos with different messages. Hopefully the collaboration with King’s can grow into more interdisciplinary projects in the future.