ANANYA BANERJEE, School of Population and Global Health, McGill University
TAMMY BUI, co-Founder of WeCanVax Epidemiologist, Public Health Agency of Canada
NEHAL ISLAM, co-Founder of WeCanVax, medicine student, McGill University
As of May 2, 2021, 600K residents in Montreal had received at least one vaccine dose, comprising 30.8% of the city’s population. Parc-Extension, Montreal’s most culturally-diverse borough, reported a lower rate of 19.9%. Barriers to accessing vaccines stem from longstanding structural inequities and medical mistrust, contributing to Parc-Extension being a neighbourhood of higher deprivation. Hence, WeCanVax emerged as an arts-based health promotion response to promote vaccine confidence in racialized communities such as Parc-Extension, Quebec. Together, a team of McGill public health students led an academic partnership with vaccine experts, health equity-professors, and Parc-Extension residents to co-design, co-pilot, and co-launch WeCanVax.
