COVID-Next: Firefighter Perceptions of Vaccination and Preparing for the Future
NDRI-USA, Inc., Principal Investigator - Brittany Hollerbach
RELEVANCE
As COVID-19 continues to spread around the country, firefighters are increasingly vulnerable to contracting the virus, particularly as new and more virulent mutations emerge. The COVID-19 death toll among firefighters now exceeds the number of line of duty deaths in 2019 and the pandemic is not over. Many departments have struggled with fighting misinformation about vaccines and other mitigation techniques such as mask use. In many places, this lack of effective messaging has led to inadequate infection disease control measures and work conditions that threaten firefighters’ safety and health. Research is necessary to examine firefighters’ perceptions of protective measures as well as health care providers’ successes and barriers to vaccination with the goal of producing fire service-specific evidence-based education, messaging, and dissemination avenues that can be used for future public health crises
METHODS
Leveraging data from national organizations, fire departments, and firefighters across the country, FP&S R&D Project Abstracts we will conduct qualitative assessments of beliefs regarding protective strategies such as mask-wearing and COVID-19 vaccination and departmental and health care providers’ experiences with vaccine rollout. These will be used to build evidence-based educational resources for dissemination among the fire service with help from our fire service partners.
ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES
Using qualitative data collection and a stakeholder panel of leading experts and key opinion leaders in the fire service, this project will solidify Dr. Hollerbach’s integration into the fire service research community. Dr. Hollerbach will synthesize data and assess current perceptions of vaccination and preventative strategies in the US fire service as well as develop educational pieces (short videos, flyers, social media content) to establish an infrastructure where critical health care messaging can be developed and disseminated to the fire service in an expedited manner.