UCLA students create online portal to promote COVID-19 vaccine efforts

UCLA students created an online portal during the spring quarter to find and train volunteers who can promote COVID-19 vaccines in communities with lower vaccination rates.

Students created the portal to close the vaccination gap as part of their coursework for Community Engagement and Social Change M175SL: “Addressing Social Determinants in Racial/Ethnic Minority Communities to Reduce and Prevent Health Disparities,” taught by Vickie Mays, a psychology and public health professor.

The portal trains prospective volunteers on the effects of COVID-19 vaccines and sends them to underserved communities to discuss and encourage vaccination efforts. The portal calls volunteers who have completed the training “vaccine warriors.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, 34% of Latino and 35% of Black populations are fully vaccinated in California. In contrast, 49% of the white population has been fully vaccinated.

Hannah Butler, a third-year biology student who took the course, said the portal will send volunteers to vaccination sites across LA to encourage recently vaccinated residents to sign up for v-safe. V-safe is the official COVID-19 vaccine symptom tracker from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where people who have been vaccinated can report any adverse reactions they may have to the vaccine.

Having trained volunteers at in-person events can help close the vaccine distribution gap in communities that lack internet access, said Tracey Veal, a fellow at the LA County Department of Public Health.

The portal uses information from the CDC to teach volunteers about the vaccine process and how each of the three COVID-19 vaccines – Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson – work, Mays said.

The portal also features information about how to discuss vaccination with those who have more questions about the process, Veal said.

“We think it’s really critical to make sure that volunteers come into the community as not just vaccine warriors, but also information warriors,” Mays said.

Some students, such as Butler, worked to direct the creation of the portal itself.
Butler said she and her classmates sometimes struggled to keep up with the changes in CDC recommendations about COVID-19 vaccines, such as the Food and Drug Administration’s May 10 approval of the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 12 to 15.

Adam Enomoto, a psychobiology alumnus who took the course, said that other difficulties included figuring out how to package the site so that it gains as much engagement as possible.

But overall, students were glad to contribute to communities surrounding UCLA.

“It’s just a really good example of how undergraduate students can interact with their community members to create a difference,” Butler said.

Enomoto said he enjoyed the opportunity to be a real-life advocate for others.

“We can be an advocate for others. Instead of just talking about it, let’s go make an impact and do this,” Enomoto said.

Sophia Balkovski, a third-year public affairs and economics student, was recruited by students enrolled in the course to map geographic data for the portal. Balkovski found out about the opportunity through an email from the geography department.

Balkovski said that she and her group used census data to map the presence of essential workers across LA County. Other groups mapped the locations of restaurants, laundromats, pediatricians’ offices and recreational centers. Demographic data was also mapped.

The maps help the county know where to send volunteers, Butler said. In areas with a lot of essential workers, for example, it’s important that people be vaccinated because workers have so much interaction with the public, she added.

Joselyne Hernandez-Romero, a geography alumna who participated in the mapping, said she appreciated the opportunity to help her own communities.

“As someone who identifies as Latina, I know that LA’s Latino community was really having a hard time with vaccine accessibility, and just was getting hit very hard during COVID-19, so I also felt the need for that reason to want to help,” Hernandez-Romero said.

The portal is impressive, Mays said, because the students in the course have found a way to help other students participate in their community.

The portal is an example of how anyone can have an impact as long as they are passionate about their work, Butler said.

“You don’t necessarily have to have all the specific skills that you might think you do in order to make a change or to do something that is significant,” Butler said.