The Missoula City County Health Department, in an effort to combat what they refer to as misinformation about the COVID 19 vaccines, has launched a new marketing campaign to encourage more people to choose vaccination.

COVID 19 Incident Commander Cindy Farr provided details.

“We just want people to know how important it is for us to be able to come out of this pandemic, so we really need to increase the number of people who are getting vaccinated,” said Farr. “And so we're launching a campaign called Come Together; A Vaccine for Every Montanan’ and it's essentially to help combat misinformation.”

Farr provided examples of some of the false information being disseminated by various news and websites.

“There's a lot of misinformation out there,” she said. “Like, we actually had some people telling us that they thought that the vaccine and I'm quoting, ‘contained ground up babies’. So obviously that is not true. We've also had people thinking that if they get vaccinated that it could change their DNA and their genetic makeup, which is also not true.”

Farr said the emphasis with the campaign is to battle misinformation with accurate information.

“We're going to be providing widespread accurate information about the COVID-19 vaccine, as well as encouraging folks to talk to their friends, family, neighbors and help people to know that vaccine is available where they might be able to get it help to answer any questions that they might have with accurate information and combat that misinformation that's out there right now,” she said.

In addition to the information campaign, Farr said the health department is making the vaccine clinics more ‘people-friendly’, with artwork on the walls at Lucky’s Market, and having some live music by local performers at the clinics.

The health department is also working with local businesses to incentivize being vaccinated.

“We're also partnering with businesses out in our community and other organizations so that maybe they could do some sort of a discount if you show your vaccination card, or some people are donating to our Lucky's market because we are going to be having weekly and daily drawings to give away different things to people who come in to get vaccinated,” she said. “We're definitely putting it all out there, and I actually just got word that it is being shared statewide. So with the Come Together campaign, you might actually see it popping up across the state and not just here in Missoula County.”

Entities interested in supporting the campaign can reach out to the Health Department’s Liaison Officer Steve Robertson at 406-544-6051 or via email at srobertson@missoulacounty.us.

 

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