In the wake of the pandemic, North Dakota, like many states, suddenly saw a splintering of opinion around vaccines. “Not only was I concerned about the decline of vaccinations, but I was even more concerned about the fabric of communities,” Sandy Tibke, executive director of the Foundation for a Healthy North Dakota, said on the this week’s podcast. So she teamed up with Josh Gryniewicz of Odd Duck, a communications consultancy.
Together, they crisscrossed North Dakota, hosting listening sessions on health-related topics that went well beyond vaccines. The initial focus, Sandy said, “was trying to talk to rural and frontier communities and urban communities and rebuilding trust without pushing people further into their ideology.” From there, they were able to facilitate conversations involving everyone from nurses to nuns, cowboys to barbers, veterinarians to chiropractors, without the “dehumanizing” language that so often crops up in these debates.
On this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast,” I spoke with Sandy and Josh about their work and the lessons it offers others in public health. Our conversation was inspired by their First Opinion essay, “How we beat anti-vaccination bills in North Dakota.”
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