The equity of vaccine access globally and in the US as well as conversations about monitoring and controlling information put out by religious denominations. All of these points raise interesting questions about the relation of faith groups, corporations,

Nursing

In the US, which has separation of church and state, who should monitor social media put out by religious organizations and how much?

I believe that the state should monitor social media put out by religious organizations. This is because thousands of vaccine-related blogs and posts by social media subscribers all over the globe portray how health uncertainty is attacking people, reaching large audiences. The other reason why the state should monitor the social media put out by religious organizations is that some of the religious institutions and Christian ministries with large social media audiences, as well as religious bloggers on these social media platforms, are creating untrue assertions about vaccines containing body parts or computer chips and some of them conflating vaccine additives with the devil (Dwoskin, 2021). Some of them discuss how vaccines encompass the label of the demon, thus creating miscommunications regarding vaccines. Therefore, the state should monitor the social media platforms by regulating the kinds of posts and blogs posted to eliminate these misconceptions.

Additionally, what role do faith groups have in supporting access to things such as vaccines?

Many individuals tend to consult their faith group leaders whenever deciding on whether to obtain vaccines or not (Trageser, 2021).  Many of the faith groups inspire their followers to obtain vaccines. They endorse access to vaccines by incorporating this message into their preachings, organizing meetings with individuals, assisting them in scheduling vaccine consultations, and some even vaccinate church members. The engagement of faith groups in vaccine-associated initiatives has been shown to enhance congregational involvement in vaccine access initiatives and thus enhance positive medical consequences.

Local congregations often host food banks, health screenings, flu vaccine clinics, etc. What responsibility, if any, do they have in vaccination access?

Local congregations perform an essential responsibility in linking individuals with vaccinations by hosting vaccination center spots or serving as communication centers in collaboration with regional public medical agencies (Hayes et al., 2021). Additionally, local congregations can be utilized to help with vaccine allocation.

References

Claire Trageser. (2021, April 20). How churches are influencing vaccine decisions. KPBS Public Media. https://www.kpbs.org/news/faith-spirituality/2021/04/20/churches-influencing-vaccine-decisions

Elizabeth Dwoskin. (2021, February 16). On social media, vaccine misinformation mixes with extreme faith. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/02/16/covid-vaccine-misinformation-evangelical-mark-beast/

Traci Hayes, Susan Mayfield-Johnson, Samaria Lowe, Tanya Funchess, & LaWanda Baskin. (2021, December 1). Engaging African American pastors in COVID-19 research during a pandemic: Lessons learned – Traci Hayes, Lawanda Baskin, Tanya Funchess, Samaria Lowe, Susan Mayfield-Johnson, 2021. SAGE Journals. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/15423050211062547?journalCode=pcca