Using Gmail or Android? View this email in your browser to see the full newsletter.

Global Health Connections
August 2022 I Special Issue

We're interrputing our planned summer hiatus to bring you this abbreviated issue of Connections so that we could share news about a convening we're co-hosting on monkeypox. We hope you'll join us on August 25 (see below for registration information).

August 25 Webinar
Monkeypox: The Latest from Member Experts

With monkeypox now an international, national, and state public health emergency, the Bay Area Global Health Alliance and UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences (IGHS) will be hosting an online update on the crisis at 9 am PT, Thursday, August 25.

UCSF's Peter Chin-Hong and George Rutherford, along with representatives from Chevron and Positive Resource Center (PRC), will join a still-growing list of other member organizations as featured speakers. Join us to learn more about what is happening in the Bay Area and globally. Register here.

You can learn more about what Bay Area Global Health Alliance members are doing to address the crisis here.

Building Community Resilience Against the Health Effects of Wildfires & Air Pollution

On September 8, join Bay Area Global Health Alliance members Americares, Stanford University, Public Health Institute, UCSF, and Google for a fireside chat exploring the impact of wildfires and air pollution on the health of communities. The discussion, co-hosted by the Alliance and Americares, will highlight the most important concerns in this space; panelists will share how their organization is working to build resilience, support preparedness/disaster management efforts, and address the health inequities resulting from climate change. For more information on the panelists and to register, visit here.

Vaccine Confidence Fund Launches Insights Report and Announces Second RFP

On August 1, the Alliance for Advancing Health Online (AAHO) launched a second Request for Proposals through the Vaccine Confidence Fund. It seeks global research on vaccine confidence, with an emphasis on enhancing routine immunization and educating health care workers on addressing vaccine hesitancy. These thematic areas were identified as essential gaps through the first phase of research.

The Vaccine Confidence Fund issued its first RFP in 2021 and disbursed $7.3 million in funding to 33 grantees globally to better understand how social media can best combat hesitancy and increase vaccination confidence and uptake. The final Insights Report, summarizing the impact of the research grants, can be found here. The Bay Area Global Health Alliance and Sabin Vaccine Institute have served as dissemination partners of the AAHO.

Global Impact manages the Fund, which is financially supported by Meta Platforms, Inc. (“Meta”) and Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA (known as MSD outside the United States and Canada). View the RFP here.

ICYMI: Using Social Media to Increase Vaccine Confidence in Marginalized & Underserved Communities

The Sabin Vaccine Institute explored critical findings from the preliminary Vaccine Confidence Fund Insights Report at this August 9 convening focused on the use of customized, targeted messaging to reach marginalized and underserved communities through social media (see feature story above). The panel discussed best practices from projects implemented in Guatemala, Algeria, Kenya, and the United States to design effective engagement activities and messages to drive vaccine confidence—including using local languages, incorporating social-cultural norms, and addressing the specific concerns of the community. Watch the recording here.