“Rebuild the trust,” says Canada Research Chair in Applied Pediatric Immunization

Shannon MacDonald aims to build trust in vaccines — trust that was strained during the height of COVID-19 — so that more children can be protected from deadly infectious diseases.

MacDonald is an associate professor in the Faculty of Nursing and an adjunct professor in the School of Public Health, and she has just been named the new Canada Research Chair in Applied Pediatric Immunization (Grade 2). She says many people who had never had vaccinations became acutely aware of their life-saving benefits during the pandemic. But others were left with questions about the benefits and safety of vaccinations because of misinformation, polarization and unequal access.

“We don’t want people to feel alienated because they have questions,” says MacDonald. “We have to say, ‘It’s okay to have questions about your health and your health care. Let’s get you the information you need.”

MacDonald’s research program focuses on finding the best ways, times and places to answer people’s questions and deliver vaccines. She works with communities, health care providers and policy makers to develop best practices for distributing vaccines so families can make informed decisions.

“The Canada Research Chair will allow me to continue to do that very engaged research to answer questions from people who are being immunized, people who are immunizing, and people who are developing policy about immunization.”

Specific community resources

A case in point: Since 2017, MacDonald has partnered with Bonny Graham, program manager of community health, diabetes and health promotions at Maskwacîs Health Services, which serves four First Nations about 70 kilometers south of Edmonton.

Their First Nations Children’s Immunization Project (FINCH) study, published last December, shows that children who receive their first dose of infant vaccines at the local clinic are more likely to continue the course than those who are vaccinated outside. reserve. This overview was drawn from quantitative data made available through a data sharing agreement with First Nations, as well as qualitative field data.

“We interviewed parents and nurses and all the health center staff, to understand where the pressure points were in the system – what was difficult for parents, what was difficult for nurses, what was affecting their ability to access and provide immunizations,” MacDonald. explains.

“We learned that when nurses have a chance to connect with families very early in a child’s life and give that first dose of vaccine, there is some trust building and an increased likelihood that the child will return for subsequent doses. .”

One limitation the team found was that when parents had questions, most of the immunization materials distributed were developed by Health Canada or Alberta Health Services without direct reference to community needs.

To address the limitation, MacDonald and Graham co-created a video with input from parents, nurses and elders. Vaccines: A FINCH video for expectant parents is narrated by a Cree-speaking elder and answers questions expectant parents have about vaccinating their babies.

“Because of historical damage, medical mistreatment and ongoing racism, there is mistrust, so this video is community-specific and directs people to Maskwacîs services and resources,” says MacDonald.

Aiming to prevent diseases

MacDonald’s recent research topics hint at the breadth of her questions, which include the uptake of the COVID vaccine by 5- to 11-year-olds in Alberta, the impact of maternal depression on infant vaccination rates and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates. among immigrant teenagers.

Her next joint project with Maskwacîs will focus on HPV and hepatitis B vaccines given to Alberta school-age children. She has another HPV-focused project in development in collaboration with the Métis Nation of Alberta.

MacDonald is co-principal investigator with the Canadian Immunization Research Network, which has just been awarded $15 million by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to continue its work for the next five years. She works with two groups of researchers within the network: one that works with administrative health records to understand who is getting vaccinated and who isn’t; the other, experts in the social sciences and humanities, who try to understand the reasons behind these trends.

The Canada Research Chair will ensure that MacDonald can continue this research leadership within Canada and abroad. It also means she can continue to recruit and train high-calibre graduate students, many of whom work part-time as research assistants on her team. She currently works with two staff and numerous students, including a postdoctoral fellow from Nigeria and a PhD student from Ghana. Other students include one who works in a youth detention center and another who works in a clinic for patients with sexually transmitted infections.

Many of the grad students are focused on improving uptake of the HPV vaccine, which prevents cervical, penile and other cancers. The vaccine is currently available to youth ages nine to 26 in Alberta. The World Health Organization recently dropped the recommended dose from two to one, and Canada is expected to follow suit soon. MacDonald says recent research shows that one dose is very effective.

“If it means people don’t have to come back for a second dose, then we can vaccinate more people with the same amount of vaccine. When we vaccinate more people, we reduce the spread of infection,” says MacDonald, who is also a member of the Women’s and Children’s Health Research Institute.

New and renewed Canada Research Chairs at the U of A

Along with MacDonald, three other University of Alberta researchers are among the latest new and renewed Canada Research Chairs:

Bipro Dharassociate professor, Faculty of Engineering
New Canada Research Chair in Microbial Electrocatalysis for Energy and the Environment (State 2)

Roman Pabayoassistant professor, School of Public Health
Renovated Canada Research Chair in Social and Health Inequalities (State 2)

Jessica Yueassociate professor, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry
Renovated Canada Research Chair in the Regulation of Brain Metabolism (State 2)