{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"80,000 Hours Podcast","title":"#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":7544,"description":"Our failure to make sure all kids globally get all of their basic vaccinations leads to 1.5 million child deaths every year. \r\n\r\nAccording to today’s guest, Varsha Venugopal, for the great majority this has nothing to do with weird conspiracy theories or medical worries — in India 80% of undervaccinated children are already getting some shots. They just aren't getting all of them, for the tragically mundane reason that life can get in the way. \r\n\r\nLinks to learn more, summary and full transcript. \r\n\r\nAs Varsha says, we're all sometimes guilty of \"valuing our present very differently from the way we value the future\", leading to short-term thinking whether about getting vaccines or going to the gym. \r\n\r\nSo who should we call on to help fix this universal problem? The government, extended family, or maybe village elders? \r\n\r\nVarsha says that research shows the most influential figures might actually be local gossips. \r\n\r\nIn 2018, Varsha heard about the ideas around effective altruism for the first time. By the end of 2019, she’d gone through Charity Entrepreneurship’s strategy incubation program, and quit her normal, stable job to co-found Suvita, a non-profit focused on improving the uptake of immunization in India, which focuses on two models: \r\n\r\n1. Sending SMS reminders directly to parents and carers \r\n2. Gossip \r\n\r\nThe first one is intuitive. You collect birth registers, digitize the paper records, process the data, and send out personalised SMS messages to hundreds of thousands of families. The effect size varies depending on the context but these messages usually increase vaccination rates by 8-18%. \r\n\r\nThe second approach is less intuitive and isn't yet entirely understood either. \r\n\r\nHere’s what happens: Suvita calls up random households and asks, “if there were an event in town, who would be most likely to tell you about it?” \r\n\r\nIn over 90% of the cases, the households gave both the name and the phone number of a local ‘influencer’. \r\n\r\nAnd when...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/VO1STE7hN95RRg9QdLo4soV2VhhbR9PF5ZZlRhDYcwE/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzQxNDAyLzE2ODM1/NDQ1NDAtYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}