In December 2020, when the FDA began issuing emergency approvals for COVID-19 vaccines, many breathed a sigh of relief. But in communities across America, distrust of vaccines, conspiracy theories, and politics complicated this milestone, prompting Monique Luisi to get to the bottom of what was driving negativity around the vaccines.
As an assistant professor of strategic communication at the Missouri School of Journalism, Luisi wanted to know what journalists could do to make scientific information about the virus more trustworthy for skeptical audiences — audiences that could be endangering their communities by ignoring public health guidelines.
