Evaluation of the Public Engagement Project on Pandemic Influenza Vaccine Prioritization Phase I: Evaluation of Public and Stakeholder Input

This report presents the results of an evaluation of the Public Engagement Project on Pandemic Influenza Vaccine Prioritization, an effort to engage citizens and stakeholders in discussions about methods to prioritize vaccine distribution in the event of an influenza pandemic. Meetings with citizens occurred January 2007 in Las Cruces, New Mexico and Nassau County, New York; and during November 2007 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Hendersonville, North Carolina. Citizens were provided information about pandemic influenza and deliberated about the issues and challenges of vaccination priorities. Stakeholders met in Washington, D.C. after the first two citizen meetings and again after the second two meetings. The stakeholder meetings followed a format similar to the citizen meetings. Key findings from the evaluation include: 1. The process was successful in attracting diverse citizens to engage in the process. 2. Citizens were motivated to participate in the process because of personal interest in the subject and the payment of a stipend. 3. Participants had sufficient knowledge about pandemic influenza to adequately consider and discuss vaccine distribution measures for pandemic influenza. The process substantially increased the knowledge of citizen participants. 4. Participants perceived the process to represent balanced, honest, and reasoned discussion of the issues while respecting diversity of views. 5. The process affected the opinions and judgments of citizen participants related to values and goals of vaccine priorities. 6. Participants were satisfied with the outcomes of the process and generallybelieved their input would be used by policy makers