Vaccine hesitancy in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic is a complex issue that continues to undermine our national ability to reduce the burden of the disease and control the pandemic. The Arizona Vaccine Confidence Network (AZ VCN proposes to leverage the expertise of the Arizona Prevention Research Center (AzPRC) and the resources of the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health (MEZCOPH) to identify, implement and evaluate behavioral interventions to increase uptake of COVID-19 vaccines. The AZ VCN focuses efforts on Latinx, rural, un/underinsured and farmworker communities in the four Arizona border counties that are at greater risk of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality and may have limited access to vaccination and other essential health services.

The purpose of the AzVCN is articulated in three specific aims:

1) Use listening sessions to create a feedback loop with key stakeholders and critical health care workers that will validate barriers/enablers and identify solutions to increase vaccination uptake emerging from the network;

2) Contribute to the identification of evidence based strategies and proposed solutions to increase knowledge of, confidence in and uptake of the vaccine through participation in the CBS-CVD network, a national network of behavioral scientists; and

3) Implement and evaluate a community-based intervention using CHWs based in a mobile unit to increase knowledge of the vaccination, reduce vaccination hesitancy and increase vaccination uptake among rural, un/underinsured and farmworker populations in Southern Arizona.

Policy Recommendations for farmworkers in times of COVID: With collaboration from Arizona Prevention Center, SEAHEC, NAU Center for Health Equity, AZPHA, Arizona Rural Health Association, Nogales Binational Health Council and the Arizona-Sonora Binational Farmworker Work Group, we have developed a series of policy recommendations to serve as a guide for county health departments, growers, employers, contractors, farmworker groups and health care providers to utilize in the implementation of prevention measures with farmworkers.

COVID POLICY STATEMENT:  English download  |  Spanish Download

Dr. Cecilia Rosales Investigator of the AzVCN joins Congressman Raul Grijalva in July, 2021, to urge all Arizonans to get vaccinated so we can stop the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant and save lives. We need more of our state population to get vaccinated so we can end this pandemic once and for all, and get back to work and back to school.