The Vaccine Safety Net (VSN) is a WHO initiative initially launched to identify trustworthy information on vaccine safety and immunization on the Internet.¹¹ GACVS supports the VSN by providing advice and criteria for website quality and content, thereby facilitating access by public health authorities, health professionals and the public to reliable information on vaccine safety. There are currently 58 member websites in 16 languages, covering the 6 WHO regions.

VSN members met on 4–5 June 2018 in Veyrier-du-Lac (France), for the second time in less than 2 years, to review the status of their activities, reflect on recent advances in social media and the Web and further discuss approaches, strategies and challenges in managing digital information and communication on vaccine safety. A preliminary report of the meeting was presented to GACVS. Despite increasing recognition worldwide, VSN members identified a number of challenges, including additional investment. The Net requires more partnerships and collaborations, qualitative research based on the experience of the VSN websites, communication research involving VSN members, engagement of young professionals and students in vaccination communication to stimulate more engagement by advocates and champions, and engagement of global and regional foundations in building vaccine acceptance and addressing vaccine hesitancy.

The good alignment of VSN members provides new opportunities for research. A recently explored area is web analytics to document patterns of web-searching on specific vaccine safety issues around the globe and at each VSN site. Web analytics could also be used to monitor the effects of digital communication strategies in real time. Research on measuring, understanding, tracking and addressing vaccine confidence was identified as another important area. A digital toolkit or newsletter would provide updates, tips, lessons learnt and risk communication guidance and resources for responding to vaccine safety events that occur locally in member countries.

During the 2-day meeting, participants were presented with preliminary results from the VSN web analytics project and plans for digital communication models for vaccine safety. GACVS continues to seek improved communication of vaccine safety information to the public and to its partners and therefore welcomes the contribution of the VSN and supports the work presented. In the overloaded web communications environment, where information competes for attention, easy access to reliable, trustworthy content on vaccina¬tion and immunization remains of paramount importance.

¹¹See WHO, Vaccine safety net (http://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/initiative/communication/network/vaccine_safety_websites/en/, accessed June 2018).

Full report of GACVS meeting of 6-7 June 2018, published in the WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record of 20 July 2018

A new GACVS subcommittee on vaccine safety communication has been established in order to integrate safety assessments with better capacity to communicate them. It is proposed that a framework and templates for communication on vaccine safety be prepared by mapping vaccine safety communication activities throughout the life cycle of products, examining current vaccine safety communication tools and identifying gaps, and proposing approaches to fill the gaps. The first task of the subcommittee was to prepare a more detailed action plan, with case studies to illustrate how safety is communicated under various circumstances.

The Committee noted the extensive strategies and education resources already available for avoiding and mitigating crises in communicating vaccine safety and highlighted two. 1. The new Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS)¹⁰ Guide to Vaccine Safety Communication covers strategic communication issues, particularly for regulators but also for immunization programmes and other stake¬holders. It stresses the importance of personnel with appropriate skills in safety communication and provides guidance and templates for a commu¬nications plan. 2. The WHO Vaccination and Trust Library includes overviews of how concerns arise, describes the role of communication in mitigating crises, provides resources to help immunization stakeholders to avoid and manage crises and outlines a training programme.

Strategies, guidelines and resources are available for mitigating and managing vaccine safety crises. A case study was presented that highlighted the value of trust, clear communication at all levels and credible sources. GACVS considers that vaccine safety communication requires coordination among many stakeholders in 5 areas: (i) a framework that includes scenarios and proposes common principles for addressing specific situations; (ii) common messaging of vaccine safety issues for global partners; (iii) sharing of existing communications resource materials through an e-library; (iv) quality standards for planning and implementing vaccine safety communications; and (v) collaboration and coordination of partners so that each stakeholder has opportunities to make actionable contributions.

¹⁰See No. 6, 2013, pp. 69–70.

Full report of GACVS meeting of 6-7 June 2018, published in the WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record of 20 July 2018

The Vaccine Safety Net (VSN) is a WHO initiative supported by GACVS that recognizes websites providing information on vaccine safety and immunization as meeting quality and content standards. The objective of the VSN is to facilitate access for public health authorities, health professionals and the public to reliable information on vaccine safety via the Internet. There are currently 46 member websites in 11 languages, covering 5 WHO regions. Two sites from the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region are under review. After more than 10 years of remote collaboration, VSN members met at WHO headquarters in Geneva on 28–29 November 2016 to review the past decade of their VSN membership, to share their views and experiences and innovations in managing digital communication and vaccine safety information, and to explore new frontiers in the gathering of this information. In addition, members expressed their expectations for the future of the network, presented tools to enhance the cohesiveness, communication and collaboration between members, and planned next steps. A report and outcomes of the meeting were presented to GACVS. The meeting convened 25 representatives of VSN sites, joined by others via videoconference, to conduct a situation analysis and explore new initiatives. A survey of VSN member websites in 2015 revealed strong interest for members to maintain better contact through mechanisms such as a VSN portal, workshops and improved links to WHO.

During the 2-day meeting, participants were presented with a unique project on how to use web analytics to support more effective vaccine safety information on the Internet. There are currently no standards and no evidence supporting such activity or this project. Sharing anonymized data on website analytics (such as number of visitors, what countries they come from, and what information they seek) and analysing the data, may improve the network and help members improve their own sites. While each website is unique, supporting consistency of information across VSN websites can assist global information campaigns such as during world immunization week.

Outcomes of the meeting included strengthened links between members who had exchanged best practices, challenges and new opportunities with advances in web communication. In addition, members reinforced the current VSN mission and objectives and began the process of defining a vision and goals and establishing an advisory group. The new VSN portal will be launched later in January 2017 and members will integrate a newly-approved visual identity icon on their websites, indicating that they have met the revised criteria for quality and content endorsed by GACVS. Most members agreed, in principle, to participate in a web analytics project.

GACVS seeks to improve its communication of vaccine safety information to the public as well as its partners; it welcomes the contribution of the VSN in these efforts and will be following developments closely. In the current overloaded web communication environment, where information competes for attention, easy access to reliable and trustworthy content on immunization is paramount.

Full report of GACVS meeting of 30 November-1 December 2016, published in the WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record of 13 January 2017

An update on the Vaccine Safety Net (VSN) had been provided during the December 2014 meeting.3 VSN is a WHO initiative supported by GACVS that responds to the growing number of websites providing misinformation on the internet related to vaccine safety. Through the VSN, websites providing useful and reliable information and meeting quality and content standards, are recognized and listed on the WHO website.4

During the past year, a working group has been updating several areas of the VSN including the evaluation criteria to meet current web standards and new information-sharing technologies. The VSN secretariat has also been considering the challenges of expanding the network to list selected social media platforms, and is planning to create an expert working group and a community of practice based on VSN members.

At this meeting, the Committee endorsed the updated evaluation criteria as well as a set of screening criteria, and was presented with the VSN work plan for 2015–2016. Additional documentation will be issued to current and potential member sites, some of which will also be made available on the VSN portal page. This will include a guidance document elaborating the evaluation criteria (as requested by GACVS from the December 2014 meeting) and a template to capture summarized key website information that will accompany each member site’s listing on the VSN portal. The criteria will be finalized over the next few months and posted on the website.

In addition, the Committee was provided with web analytics showing how visitors use the VSN relative to other WHO vaccine safety web pages. There are currently 35 websites listed under the VSN, and another 10 which have requested to join and are currently being evaluated. Snapshots of analytics for the first 6 months of both 2014 and 2015 showed about 15 000 visitors per year to the VSN homepage, from just over 90 000 visitors to the parent WHO Vaccine Safety homepage.

Acknowledging trends in safety communication over its >10 years of existence, the VSN is undergoing upgrades to bring it in line with evolving information technologies. In addition to revising the evaluation criteria for websites, resources are being made available to include more countries and more languages, by providing limited technical support on request, and by increasing capacity to periodically review websites to ensure they continue to meet best practices. A VSN “logo” is being designed so that websites can readily demonstrate their compliance with the criteria as well as provide a link back to the VSN portal and thus indirectly to other member sites. The VSN website will undergo upgrades to increase its utility, enhance and standardize the description of recognized participating sites. As mentioned, both a network of expertise and a community of practice will be created: the former to provide ongoing advice to the VSN on best practices in communications and the latter to bring together member sites so they may assist each other, especially when a vaccine safety issue arises. A survey of VSN sites is also planned, along with an initiative to assist existing member sites in collecting web metrics. This should help in identifying patterns of use and improve both collaboration and communication among participating sites. Finally, evaluation criteria are being developed for new resources that were not in existence 10 years ago, such as social network and mobile devices apps. GACVS supports the process of improving the VSN to keep up with the evolving range of vaccine safety communications.

³See No. 4, 2015, pp. 22–23.

⁴Vaccine safety net. Accessible at http://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/initiative/communication/network/vaccine_safety_websites/en/

Full report of GACVS meeting of 10-11 June 2015, published in the WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record of 17 July 2015