If neighborhood door-knocking works for Girl Scout cookie salespeople and hopeful politicians, there’s no reason it can’t work for encouraging COVID-19 vaccines. A dedicated COVID-19 vaccine information provider is having success with the tactic in Coatesville. Justine McDaniel wrote about the boots-on-the-ground tactic for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Ann Cunningham, a volunteer disseminating COVID-19 vaccine information, has yielded positive results from her 1:1 approach. She merely rings the doorbell and launches a conversation about the importance of this inoculation.
She’s also countering the notion that in-person canvassing is part of a mandate to push vaccines on people who, for various reasons, choose not to get them.
Many of her conversations change minds.
“Door-to-door works,” she said. “People are afraid, and the easy answers are coming from online misinformation and fearmongering and conspiracy theories. To be able to break through that with a face-to-face conversation is critical.”
Cunningham has had such good results in Coatesville from the 1:1 tactic that she and other volunteers are now targeting community events. They also plan to collaborate with other neighborhood organizations to do more canvassing.
Cunningham responds to a common misperception about why she’s on people’s doorsteps. She’s not there, she explains, to strong-arm anyone.
“We’re not there to force anybody to get the shot,” she said. “We’re there to help the community.”
Read more about this door-to-door initiative in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
