Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Anthony Fauci, joined the Youth-focused Faiths4Vaccines Roundtable to speak with young multi-faith leaders, representing the Sikh, Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Jewish faiths, on how they can assist with COVID-19 vaccination response efforts during the White House “Month of Action.” The roundtable showcased how youth are responding and contributing to COVID-19 efforts within their communities. Youth leaders shared their testimonies on how they are contributing to the COVID-19 vaccination efforts to advance COVID-19 vaccine distribution and uptake and to combat vaccine hesitancy. Connie Meyer, Curriculum Development Consultant and Trainer for the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) then engaged youth participants in an interactive training on how to effectively message with diverse audiences to combat vaccine hesitancy. The event closed with a moderated Q & A session with Dr. Anthony Fauci.
As the United States continues its vaccine rollout, young people are continuing to step up and demonstrate their continued leadership in their communities. While young people are some of the most affected socio-economically impacted groups, they are among the most active in responses. From healthcare workers to innovators and communicators, youth are critical to ensuring success for vaccine access, uptake and acceptance for all age groups.
Jacob Greenblatt, Senior Legislative Assistant of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism opened the event with welcoming remarks and reflections from the jewish faith. He spoke on how Judaism teachings highlight how providing healthcare is critical for society and that is the most important service a community can offer.
Faiths4Vaccine Youth Ambassador, Tahil Sharma, provided opening reflections on the Faiths4Vaccine National Summit and reflected on his own efforts towards the COVID-19 vaccination response. Sharma noted how he has been active in the Los Angeles community on vaccination efforts, specifically around reducing vaccine hesitancy. “That relational way of being able to communicate about vaccines is the way that we can actually get people to come naturally to the conclusion that I’m not just doing this for myself, I am doing it for other people,” stated Sharma. “When it came to hesitancy around the vaccinations, it became very clear that the dominant role of faith communities is to continue to be a stakeholder in the progress of how our nation and our communities can prosper, because it is the same faith communities that have managed to show up and to be able to get their communities to be involved in difficult, uncomfortable, but necessary conversations about health, wellbeing, and collective care.”
Youth testimonial speaker Harvi Shergill elaborated further in stating, “Overall I think from this experience, it’s truly been amazing to see how people from different faiths, as well as from different backgrounds and even people without a particular faith have been able to come together and really work in the interest of a common goal.” Shergill, a junior at George Washington University and an active member in the Sikh community has been able to help provide vaccinations for those in need.
Youth testimonial speaker Jewel Koshy, further reflected on the connection between vaccination efforts and one’s role within their faith community in noting that one of her interpretations in the Christian faith is that, “ Jesus never invalidated a fear that someone had, and Jesus was always willing to answer questions. If we are looking at the lens of Jesus, then we should also be listening to people and allowing people to actually face concerns.” She then related this ideal to her efforts in decreasing vaccine hesitancy – “our job should never be to persuade, but just to inform, and I think when our mindset is informing, our passion can be communicated better.”
Connie Meyer, Curriculum Development Consultant and Trainer for the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC),then joined the Roundtable to provide training on how to effectively message and combat vaccine hesitancy among different audiences, including family and friends, fellow church congregation members, and strangers. The workshop included interactive scenario situations to better strengthen response in promoting vaccine uptake. Click here to watch the training.
The event closed with a moderated Q&A session with Faiths4Vaccines Youth Ambassador Mikaeel Martinez-Jaka, and Dr. Anthony Fauci. Dr. Fauci engaged in dialogue with the youth participants and answered questions they had surrounding the vaccine and vaccination efforts. He emphasized the important role the youth are playing in increasing vaccination efforts around the country. “Trusted messages like yourselves are really the answer to getting people, particularly in your own general age group, or even beyond, to get vaccinated. The real soldiers in this battle against this terrible pandemic are people like yourselves who are the trusted messengers to get people to get vaccinated,” stated Fauci. “The challenge now is to get as many people vaccinated as we possibly can include young people.”
In closing the event, Faiths4Vaccine Youth Ambassador Mikaeel Martinez-Jaka reflected on his motivation in supporting vaccination efforts from teachings in The Quran: “If you have saved the life of one person, it is as if you have saved the lives of all humanity.”
Click here to watch the full webinar.