Boosting vaccination uptake using wastewater surveillance: a county-randomized controlled trial

Vaccine hesitancy remains a major public health challenge, highlighting the need for effective strategies to boost vaccine uptake. We conducted a county-randomized trial to evaluate whether a social media campaign grounded in alerts driven by community-level wastewater surveillance could increase COVID-19 and influenza vaccination. Forty New York State counties were selected for an 11-week campaign during fall 2024, with 20 counties assigned to the intervention and 20 serving as controls. The campaign reached more than 16.6 million impressions, with over 77K clicks on the call-to-action link, demonstrating substantial public engagement. During the campaign period, intervention counties administered significantly more COVID-19 vaccine doses (β = 76.7, P = 0.01) but fewer influenza vaccine doses (β= −140.9, P = 0.04) per 100,000 residents per week than control counties. However, season-level analysis showed no significant differences in COVID-19 or influenza vaccination uptake between groups. These findings highlight the potential of alerts from community-level wastewater surveillance to promote vaccination.