Year 2 Project

CoVaRR-Net Researchers

Nazeem Muhajarine, University of Saskatchewan, Co-Lead of Pillar 8: Public Health, Health Systems and Social Policy Impacts, and Project Co-Lead
Cory Neudorf, University of Saskatchewan, Co-Lead of Pillar 8: Public Health, Health Systems and Social Policy Impacts, and Project Co-Lead

Sara Allin, University of Toronto, Pillar 8 Member
Camillo Cheryl, University of Regina, Pillar 8 Deputy
Doug Manuel, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Pillar 8 Deputy
Andrew Morris, Sinai Health-University Health Network, Pillar 8 Deputy

CoVaRR-Net Collaborator

Fatima Tokhmafshan, Director of Community and Patient Engagement and Outreach

MIICOVAC Project Members

Ève Dubé, Québec National Institute of Public Health, Co-investigator
Arnaud Gagneur, Université de Sherbrooke, Principal Researcher
Greg Penney, Canadian Public Health Association, Collaborator

Lay Summary

Year 2 of our research will be devoted to carrying out three projects, all focused on vaccines, intended to learn lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and preparing for future pandemics and large-scale outbreaks.

We will:

  • Investigate the existing COVID-19 surveillance systems in Canada and review the common protocols that have been used to understand the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in public health systems. The findings will be used to develop a recommendation for a standard COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness surveillance system.
  • Analyze vaccine administration across Canada and sub-groups thereof, identify the most promising practices, and provide insights into planning for future pandemics.
  • Collaborate with team members of the Patient Engagement and Outreach and Motivational Interviewing to increase COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance (MIICOVAC) project, funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada. This project aims to address the concerns of people who are not adequately vaccinated and are reluctant to receive the vaccine and aims to increase the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination among Canadians. Our team will support the MIICOVAC project in four ways: 1) Perform a rapid evidence synthesis of the effectiveness of motivational interviewing to reduce vaccine hesitancy and increase uptake, 2) Support counselors with science-based information and resources, 3) Expand and scale-up the pilot by including under-represented participants (EDI) and counselors, and 4) Offer intervention research support.

In carrying out all three projects, we will continue our collaborations with CIEDAR (CoVaRR-Net’s Indigenous Engagement, Development, and Research Pillar 7) and Pillar 9 (Knowledge, Implementation and Training Team) in the interest of developing practices that can serve national vaccine surveillance and vaccination campaigns, while being responsive to the needs of particular groups across Canada.

Budget

$625,000 cash contribution