NGA Partner Resources – COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution and Communications Plans

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Federal, state, territorial, tribal, and local governments and private partners are working collaboratively to ensure that vaccines are distributed in a manner that protects public health and safeguards those at highest risk for severe COVID-19 disease.

3M

Cold Chain: A Vital Necessity for Vaccines

The United States leads the world in providing quality public health and health care to its citizens. A fundamental pillar of improved public health is the availability of vaccines and pharmaceuticals to prevent and treat disease. In this white paper, we focus on the cold chain: the ability to maintain temperature of vaccines and pharmaceuticals from the manufacturer to the end user to assure their viability for every American who receives them.

Read the Protecting Vaccines and Pharmaceuticals for All Americans in Our Public Health System: Viable Packing and Transport of Vaccines in the COVID Era report.

Adobe

Eliminating Paper Through Electronic Signatures

Adobe’s electronic signature solution, Adobe Sign, can be quickly deployed to eliminate any paper-based process or form in the vaccine distribution process. Adobe Sign offers the highest level of security, including compliance with HIPAA data. For example, the state of Utah is using Adobe Sign to help eliminate paper and ensure operational efficiency.

Engaging Content

Adobe is well known for our creative software tools such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and many others in the Creative Cloud. These tools are used by over 90% of Creative Professionals every day to produce content that inspires and persuades. Adobe can partner with your offices to help produce engaging content that builds trust.

Citizen Communications

Adobe works closely with government and commercial customers to deliver digital content across email, mobile, social media, to reach the right person, on the right channel, and at the right time. Adobe also understands the challenges of effectively communicating information, building trust, and promoting confidence with citizens. Adobe has already partnered with the CDC and several state and local government agencies to orchestrate multi-channel communications to millions of citizens with up-to-date information about the COVID-19 emergency.      

Learn more at https://www.adobe.com/

AHIP

Combating COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy

AHIP recently announced it is supporting the Ad Council’s multiyear campaign to overcome COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, particularly among communities of color.  AHIP joins leading businesses, non-profits, public health, civil rights, faith-based and community organizations in a national effort to increase confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine. Read the release.

Racial and ethnic minority groups are experiencing higher rates of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, with Native Americans, African Americans, and Hispanics being hospitalized at nearly four times the rate of white Americans.  With vaccines being such an effective and cost-efficient way to protect peoples’ health, a critical component of the campaign is developing strategies and messages that resonate with the general public and racially marginalized communities and raise awareness about the importance of getting vaccinated.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will vet campaign content for accuracy.  Additionally, the COVID Collaborative will led scientific expertise to the campaign.

Resource Page on COVID-19 Vaccines

Health insurance providers are taking a lead role as the nation embarks on vaccinating Americans against COVID-19. Ensuring access to safe, effective COVID-19 vaccines is a public health imperative, and health insurance providers are working with national, state, and local leaders to help promote access to vaccine.

AHIP’s new resource page highlights everything health insurance providers are doing, from providing access to FDA-approved vaccines to educating Americans about the need for vaccines. The dedicated resource page also includes a list of Frequently Asked Questions focused on hot button issues such as coverage, coding and billing, and the timing and availability of vaccines. Other items on the page include links to government toolkits and legislation focused on the vaccines, as well as links to AHIP statements and blogs on COVID-19 vaccines. Click here to read more to visit AHIP’s COVID-19 Vaccine page.

Amazon Web Services

As state and local governments prepare for the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, agencies are reaching out to NGA Partner Amazon Web Services (AWS) to scale existing Immunization Information Systems. They will also help provide services for call centers, provider registration, inventory management, workflow for mass vaccination clinics, billing, and consumer access to immunization data.

Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO)

COVID Vaccine Facts is a resource website with FAQs that serves as an educational tool to link people to third-party scientific and evidenced-based information related to the vaccine development process, along with the safety, efficacy, availability, and affordability of Covid-19 vaccines.

Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA)

A safe, effective and affordable vaccine is crucial to protecting public health and bringing the COVID-19 pandemic under control. Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies are committed to doing our part to cover the cost of the vaccination with no cost-sharing to members. To ensure public trust in a vaccine, achieve widespread immunization and save countless lives, federal, state and local governments should adopt a series of measures, as outlined in our vaccine principles.

Consistent communication will be key to success. BCBSA and BCBS Plans have the ability and the experience to communicate with our members and stand ready to work with governors and other officials to provide consistent messages, targeted as necessary to under-served or vaccine-hesitant  groups, as the vaccines roll out.

BCBSA principles: COVID-19 Vaccine – Direct link to the issue brief

Postponement of routine care due to COVID-19 increases public health risk– Infographic to compliment recent BCBSA press release on steep drop in childhood vaccinations

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association reports steep decline in childhood vaccinations due to COVID-19 pandemic, putting community protection at risk – Direct link to the press release

Vaccines: Safe, effective and necessary – Infographic on the success and necessity of vaccines

Interactive Myth/Fact page on vaccines (and other issues)

With the global pandemic it is more important than ever to keep up with routine vaccinations – Insights piece authored by Dr. William Schaffner, Medical Director, National Foundation for Infectious Diseases

BSA | The Software Alliance

BSA member, Salesforce.com has adapted its business software to help healthcare organizations and government entities distribute vaccines for COVID-19. Work.com for Vaccines will help cities, states and health-care groups track vaccine inventory levels, create online appointment portals and track how patients fare after being vaccinated. For more information visit Salesforce’s Vaccine Administration Management website.

Dassault Systèmes

Dassault Systèmes “Life Sciences in the Fight Against COVID-19” which highlights: Simulation for safe public spaces and hospitals; Early activities with academic partners; MEDIDATA’s rule in keeping trials going during the crisis; and Establishing their Open COVID-19 Environment though 3DEXPERIENCE Lab.

Deloitte

At Deloitte, we are passionate about helping our clients deliver on their missions in a public health arena that is increasingly complex with regulatory, economic, social, and environmental challenges. We have collaborated with our clients to help respond to the Ebola epidemic, to keep our food and drugs safe, to improve the use of technology for surveillance and monitoring, to channel appropriate health messages to the public, and to provide technical assistance to increase efficiencies within public health agencies. Our talented team of policy, research, evaluation, and other health consultants are committed to bringing our experience to address key public health challenges. Deloitte Public Health Communications | Marketing Through the Mask and The Unforgettable Return of the Public Health Campaign

Ernst and Young

As the vaccine race for COVID-19 may be nearing the end, all eyes turn to logistical challenges at the heart of a mass immunization effort. Ernst and Young’s work with several states has revealed keen insight into the current state and leading practices in communications and community engagement.

Contact: Belinda Minta; +14048175741; Belinda.minta@ey.com

ESRI

NGA Partner Esri, has created reusable applications to assist states with vaccine distribution planning, monitoring and targeted communications and outreach strategies.  Communications apps use mapping and data analytics to identify vaccine hesitant communities and hard to reach populations and inform specific outreach strategies for greater success.  These tools are described in this blog  GIS Can Help Leaders Achieve Equitable, Speedy, Vaccine Distribution  and found at this website  COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Resources .

Esri has created a new template for Covid-19 vaccine distribution and communications.  This site is designed to provide state and local governments with the tools and resources needed to effectively communicate the vaccination resources and process, while building trust and transparency.   This configurable framework can be customized for each state and activated quickly to not only show when, where and how to get the vaccine but also communicate community vaccination progress and engage citizens. 

Granicus

Public health experts, government officials and communicators at all levels face a  daunting task of educating and building trust in the COVID-19 vaccine while also communicating when and how to get vaccinated.

Granicus has helped our government clients communicate with their audiences.  Our collection of insights from vaccine communication efforts can be found below:

Case Studies and Data Insights

Downloadable Resources

Google

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, teams across Google have worked to provide quality information and resources to help keep people safe, and to provide public health, scientists and medical professionals with tools to combat the pandemic. With recent breakthroughs in vaccine development, we’ve published a blog to share an update on how we’re surfacing timely and authoritative information on COVID vaccines to our users while working to keep harmful misinformation off our platforms.

To do this, we’re:

  • Elevating authoritative information from public health authorities 
    • Beginning in the UK, we’re launching a new feature on Search so when people look up information for COVID-19 vaccines, we will surface a list of authorized vaccines from their national health agencies, as well as information panels on each individual vaccine. As other health authorities begin authorizing vaccines, we’ll introduce this new feature in more countries.
    • Launched in March, our COVID-19 information panels on YouTube have been viewed 400 billion times, making them an important source of authoritative information. These panels are featured on the YouTube homepage, and on videos and in search results about the pandemic. Updates to the panels will connect people directly to vaccine information from global and local health authorities.
    • Since the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve given $250 million in Ad Grants globally to help more than 100 government agencies run critical public service announcements about COVID-19. Grantees will be able to use these funds throughout 2021, including for vaccine education and outreach campaigns, and we’re announcing today an additional $15 million in Ad Grants to the World Health Organization (WHO) to assist their global campaign.
  • Supporting quality reporting and information on vaccines
    • The Google News Initiative (GNI) is providing an additional $1.5 million dollars to fund the creation of a COVID-19 Vaccine Media Hub and support new fact-checking research.
  • Protecting our platforms against misinformation 
    • We’ve had long-standing policies prohibiting harmful and misleading medical or health-related content.  When COVID-19 hit, our global Trust and Safety team worked to stop a variety of abuses stemming from the pandemic and our teams have been planning for new threats and abuse patterns related to COVID-19.
    • In October, we expanded our COVID-19 medical misinformation policy on YouTube to remove content about vaccines that contradicts consensus from health authorities, such as the Centers for Disease Control or the WHO. With these policies in place early, our teams have removed more than 700,000 videos related to dangerous or misleading COVID-19 medical information.
    • We also continue to remove harmful COVID-19 misinformation across other products like Ads, Google Maps and the Play store.

Health Action Alliance

Health Action Alliance offers a range of free tools and workshops to help businesses prepare for COVID-19 vaccines, strengthen vaccine acceptance, improve health equity and rebuild public health. This includes:

  • A Quick Start Guide, to help employers reduce barriers to vaccination and make it as easy as possible for employees and workers to get vaccinated when it’s their turn;
  • Communications Guidance, with sample CEO statements, social media posts, conversation guides, audience insights and key messages for employees; 
  • A suite of Small Business Resources, with tailored content to help small employers support workers and encourage vaccination;
  • Audience Insights and Messaging Guidance for Black, Hispanic, American Indian and Alaska Native communities; and,
  • Vaccine Education Workshops for Employee Resource Groups and Diversity Leaders, offering coaching and support to engage communities of color and other disproportionately impacted workforce populations.  

IBM

Vaccine Accountability Network
 
At IBM, we firmly believe every company and individual should collectively contribute to ensure fellow citizens are safe from the virus and its impact as well as on a path for expedited economic recovery. IBM is actively assisting federal, state and local governments to ensure the integrity of the COVID-19 vaccine supply chain and the secure management of vital information supporting COVID-19 vaccine distribution. This existing IBM capability enables state, federal, public and private information sharing in a permissioned and secure manner to track and optimize vaccine shipments, storage locations, required injections, personnel, PPE, and delivery kits by providing data visibility across systems to improve the overall citizen experience and instill confidence in vaccine distribution integrity. This capability can also be used to ensure underserved populations receive appropriate and adequate levels of vaccines and associated notifications.  

Learn more: https://www.ibm.com/blockchain/solutions/vaccine-distribution

IBM Digital Health Pass

As vaccine availability begins to scale, IBM is working with federal, state and local level governments to hasten distribution while strengthening public trust in authenticity and safety. IBM is helping governments and businesses collaborate with confidence, share information and ensure end-to-end certification of vaccines across a complex supply chain network using technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and cloud computing. For example, IBM’s Digital Health Pass supports organizational policies that help bring people back to a physical location, such as a workplace, school, stadium, or airline flight and provides individuals with a verifiable and privacy-preserving way to manage and share their health status as they return to public places.

More Info: https://www.ibm.com/products/digital-health-pass

  • Contact: Jia Chen; jiachen@us.ibm.com

lyft

Recognizing that 15 million Americans face transportation insecurity and will have challenges accessing the COVID-19 vaccine Lyft has announced the launch of a nationwide partnership campaign to support universal access to the COVID-19 vaccine.The goal of this effort is to provide 60 million rides to and from vaccination sites for low-income, uninsured, and at-risk communities, when the vaccine becomes available. Please see this blog post for additional information on the program.

Modular Building Institute

The modular construction industry plays a vital role following natural disasters, assisting with both short term disaster relief and longer-term rebuilding efforts. And as it has following hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes, the industry is poised to serve during the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. There is simply no better means of quickly providing shelter, schools, and medical facilities in times of great need. Modular Building COVID-19 response and resources website.

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)

Recently, there have been a number of conversations about the role of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in reviewing different COVID-19 vaccine candidates, and exactly how they may be available for use outside the context of a clinical trial, including through the issuance of an emergency use authorization (EUA). An EUA is important to helping provide access to medical products during a public health emergency like COVID-19. Understanding the Emergency Use Authorization Process

One of the approaches under investigation to developing a COVID-19 vaccine uses mRNA technology, which potentially offers greater flexibility and quicker development timelines than traditional vaccine development. mRNA Innovation Article

Developing new therapies to treat disease and to improve quality of life is a long and complex process. A critical part of that process is clinical research, the study of a pharmaceutical product in humans. Without clinical research studies, no new medicines could be made available to patients. PhRMA Principles of Clinical Trials

Across the board, COVID-19 vaccines will further undergo extensive testing for safety and effectiveness prior to any regulatory approval. Once a vaccine is licensed, regulatory authorities and the vaccine sponsor routinely monitor its use and investigate any potential safety concerns. Post approval research will further continue after vaccines are licensed. Vaccines Factsheet   

Siemens

Siemens has been a trusted partner to states and local government throughout the pandemic, providing medical supplies and infrastructure technologies for rapid patient care and to accelerate the protections for workers on the frontlines and for communities most affected by COVID-19. We’ve been working with our public sector partners to create safer indoor spaces by installing advanced HVAC technologies in schools and universities, which helps in improving indoor air quality and limiting COVID-19 transmission. We also support the U.S. manufacturing base, with a coordinated supply chain, so our industrial facilities can stay open and our local economies keep running.

One of our proudest accomplishments has been partnering with the US Army Corps of Engineers and Haugland Energy to build in just three weeks two temporary facilities in Westchester County, NY to accommodate increased patient demand. Typically, this project would have taken more than a year, but with an innovative approach, tents were constructed in the parking lot, and the community center was transformed into a low-pressure environment, critical to fighting respiratory infections in COVID-19 patients. Our team is also working with Molloy College in Rockville Centre, NY to install new air purification systems in its three residential halls with individual monitor units in each dorm room.

In support of local communities, the Siemens Foundation team has donated more than $5.4 million to address the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, including $2.13 million to 20 community health centers, $500,000 to the National Governors Association’s Reskilling and Recovery Network, and nearly $3 million in funding COVID-19 testing technologies to Testing for America to support the safe reopening of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) across the country.

Siemens has communicated broadly with unique communications focused on not just Siemens technologies but the impact that innovation and fast thinking can have during an unexpected global health crisis. We maintain and regularly update our COVID-19 communications on a dedicated landing page: https://new.siemens.com/us/en/company/about/covid-19-coronavirus.html.

ServiceNow

The ServiceNow Solution

As state and local governments plan for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, ServiceNow understands there is no one-size fits all answer and have a flexible platform that fits into your existing infrastructure. With our vaccine management command center, we have mapped solutions to the CDC playbook across the distribution, administration, and monitoring stages of vaccine roll-out so that supplies, people, workflows and information can stay connected at scale. ServiceNow is the platform of platforms, helping you manage the unique, evolving challenges presented by the pandemic. Our digital workflows simplify complexity, so you can focus on what matters most. To learn more, visit: https://your.servicenow.com/vaccinemanagement

Contacts:

Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM)

SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management, creates better workplaces where employers and employees thrive together. As the voice of all things work, workers, and the workplace, SHRM is the foremost expert, convener, and thought leader on issues impacting today’s evolving workplaces. With 300,000+ HR and business executive members in 165 countries, SHRM impacts the lives of more than 115 million workers and families globally.

The coronavirus has changed the way we work and manage employees. SHRM will continue as the voice of all things work, providing thought leadership, best practices, and workplace policy. SHRM is always ready to work with strategic partners and public policymakers to create better workplaces and a better world.

COVID-19 Vaccine FAQs

How to Handle an Employees Request for a Medical or Religious Accommodation to a Vaccine Requirement

Zoom

State Government COVID-Related Community Engagement

Zoom is honored to serve governors and other state and local government leaders – across the country –  in communicating with citizens and constituents, during this unprecedented time.

Through our role in serving state governments, we have been a part of countless stories of effective COVID-related engagement. We have supported dedicated public servants across the country, of all backgrounds, in building trust and inspiring the people they serve.

Zoom’s State & Local Government Portfolio

Zoom provides state and local agencies and court systems a secure and authorized platform for online communication, collaboration, and continuity of operations – both internal within government and externally with the public you serve.

We are proud of our role in providing these foundational capabilities supporting the safety, health, and prosperity of our nation — especially in the unique circumstances of this era.

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