Johns Hopkins launches ‘Vira’ Vax Chatbot to promote vaccination efforts

July 9, 2021

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health announced the launch of Vira, the Vax Chatbot, which is designed to support young people with simple answers to common COVID-19 vaccine questions.

Vira is adaptive, learning by listening to your questions and feedback to help scientists respond to emerging questions. VaxChat, powered by IBM, was inspired by previous research that showed automated chatbots using AI can effectively communicate credible information and support health behavior changes.  

Vira was developed by the International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with experts from the Bloomberg School's Department of International Health and Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering. Vira’s knowledge base from Johns Hopkins vaccine scientists was developed with support from the COVID-19 Training Initiative, with funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies. 

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has the release

More COVID-19 coverage HERE.