Vaccine Voices: Reaching Milestones!

Hi everyone,
This week, I worked on my research paper and honed my slide deck early: making sure that each part of the outline clearly introduces the shifts in attitudes towards vaccines that I’m chronicling, and that each quote and chart has a purpose in the story.

Then I drew on my network and coordinated a personal connection who’s highly plugged into a senior population. Working with him has paved the way for a significantly less complicated process of data gathering among the elderly; his familiarity with the group has already built a comfortable climate and earned their trust. We organized a day near the end of the week when I went with my new senior friend to gather responses in person at one of their regular meetups in a park with beautiful scenery, perfect for taking a break from constantly moving forward within my hectic day-to-day schedule. Hearing seniors report their cold-and-flu vaccine experiences firsthand evoked new topics; some echoed the teens’ worries, others voiced unique generational perspectives.

Mid-week, I brought my attention back to my teen sample set, this time with questions sharpened through weeks and a few cycles of survey deployment.
I was able to see quite visibly that the interviewees found it easier to be asked to complete the survey, even finishing off the additional free response questions later on. These intangible, qualitative, and valuable bits of information will contribute significantly to the analysis. I am actually finishing my data collection process this week and initiating the data analysis which shall be part of my research paper!

Looking ahead, I’ll be slotting these early trends into my results section and polishing my figures to highlight emerging themes across both age groups. I’m planning to circulate my draft for feedback on narrative flow and clarity, and then start drafting that discussion section to draw connections between pre- and post-pandemic attitudes. Thanks for following along, more updates are coming soon!