Engaging trusted messengers in public health response: Key strategies to building community trust among CDC'S prevention research center's vaccine confidence network

As part of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Prevention Research Center (PRC) Vaccine Confidence Network (PRC VCN), 26 academic institutions were funded to increase COVID-19 vaccine confidence and uptake in their communities. Six sites (in communities located in Alabama, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, South Carolina, and Texas) formed a workgroup to identify emergent themes, and share challenges and opportunities across projects. This essay describes their efforts to engage trusted messengers in vaccine activities, and discusses strategies to develop and sustain these types of partnerships in the future. All sites recruited trusted messengers with strong community relationships to engage in multiple activities to promote COVID-19 vaccine confidence and uptake. CDC and the PRCs provided data-driven, evidence-based training and support to enable trusted messengers to fully participate in the projects. We posit that trusted messengers are essential partners for informing public health campaigns, developing effective messages, and building trust with local communities. Flexible federal funding and local coordination are essential for creating and sustaining trusted messenger approaches that combine community needs and data-informed evidence to promote timely public health responses.