Brown students’ nationwide study aims to gather perspectives on COVID-19 vaccines

DR. CARLA MOREIRA, center, and research students Skenda Jean-Charles, left, and Kiara Corcoran Ruiz are among those at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University who have launched an anonymous survey created to determine whether race, place of residence and political beliefs play a role in opinions on COVID-19 vaccines in the United States. / COURTESY PRACTICE MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

PROVIDENCE – Research students at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University are hoping to get a sense of whether various factors, including race and geography, influence perspectives on COVID-19 vaccinations across the United States.

Participants in the study, conducted by the school’s SURGE Lab, complete an online form. The anonymous survey is open to all U.S. residents age 18 and older, but researchers are hoping for a diverse response.

“We hope to recruit study participants from every community but specifically from communities of color, which have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr. Carla Moreira, a vascular surgeon and founder of the SURGE Lab.

Moreira is overseeing the students conducting the research.

- Advertisement -

Along with race and place of residence, researchers plan to analyze whether socioeconomic, language and political beliefs hold any bearing on opinions about COVID-19 vaccines.

Brown University’s Institutional Review Board approved the study.

Student Skenda Jean-Charles came up with the idea for the project after speaking with some of her family members about vaccinations.

“It got me thinking about what wider vaccination perspectives may be and how those perspectives can shift across different communities. [Fellow researcher] Kiara [Corcoran Ruiz] and I felt that a national, multilingual survey on these perspectives could help us to understand community concerns with vaccination,” Jean-Charles said.

Elizabeth Graham is a PBN contributing writer.

No posts to display