Lisa Rusch, parliamentary secretary to Karin Kadenbach MEP; Gianmarco Gasperini and Francesca Martini of the University of Bologna, winners of the Vaccines Today Communication Challenge; and Gary Finnegan, editor of Vaccines Today
The jury had the truly agonising task of choosing their favourite video and were spoiled for choice thanks to the high standards set by all six finalists. After some deliberation, they ranked their favourites in order of preference and chose the video Gianmarco and Francesca produced. Their film is a great example of how a serious point can be made with a healthy dose of good humour! The film looks explores some of the misconceptions people have about vaccines and has a little fun along the way. The jury thought this one was highly entertaining and would appeal to younger people, including young parents and young health professionals.
Of course, the jury’s vote counted for only 70% of the final tally. The other 30% came from the number of Facebook ‘likes’ each video received. Here Gianmarco and Francesca received more than 1,400 ‘likes’. A special mention should go also to Cerelyn Dacula, Melvin Sancias and Dirga Sakti Rambe of the University of Siena. Their video attracted a high number of ‘likes’ and was also highly rated by the jury who chose it as their third favourite.
The Vaccines Today Communication Challenge was a pilot project and we were delighted with the high quality of entries received as well as the enormous public response during the one-week voting period. It was also fantastic to the see the wealth of creativity on display as well as the diversity of approaches taken by each entrant.
Gianmarco and Francesca will travel to Brussels to receive their prize this week. They won €1,000 and a vaccinology course which they can take at a time of their choosing. The prie will be presented by our Editor, Gary Finnegan, and a representative from the office of Karin Kadenbach MEP. It is well deserved and we also wish to thank the other finalists for the effort and skill they put into their videos.
