1. On the importance of cultural competence when trying to elicit sound public health behavior:

2. I am leading a task force of students whose goal is to raise vaccine confidence in a very religious community in Israel.

3. I have a public health background and am a very vocal vaccine advocate, but I am a culturally Jewish atheist. I speak minimal Hebrew and couldn't tell you three things Joshua did. (Honestly, maybe not even 1 thing)

4. So I wrote a first draft of a pamphlet with vaccine FAQs that the population's kids can read together with their parents.

5. I told a story about germs as "supervillains" and vaccines as "superheroes" that turn our own bodies into superheroes once we're vaccinated.

6. But then I ran the draft by people who are more familiar with the culture than I am, and I learned this population doesn't care about superheroes and villains. What might resonate better is a story about Haman and Mordechai.

7. I was also told that I should change my reference of "God" to "Hashem."

I had no idea at all.

8. I have yet to run my draft by people who are actually quite familiar with the population, and I'd really like them to help me write to make it resonate more strongly with a highly religious community.

9. My point is that as someone with no experience whatsoever with the culture of the population I'm trying to reach, I will likely be completely ineffective on my own if I seek to change behavior.

10. This is something we all need to consider when trying to on appeal to populations who are different from us. That's why it's so important for a government cabinet to be more than just older white men, for example.

11. If we want to I appeal to different cultures to make behavioral changes that benefit the public health, we need to incorporate people from those communities in our plans. Talk to them, listen to them, take their critiques seriously.

12. That's all I got for now. I'll keep you updated as I learn more.

End.