Covid-19 Vacin Hesitancy presents a challenge for the herd immunity push

About 51% of unvaccinated adults said they would definitely get the vaccine, with 26% saying they would probably get it, 14% saying they probably wouldn’t and 10% saying they definitely wouldn’t.

Studies show that to stop the spread of Covid-19 and its mutations, between 70% and 80% of the population must develop immunity, increasing the involvement of health officials to attract ambivalent Americans to take vaccines. .

Currently, approximately 8% of the U.S. population has had at least one dose of vaccine, according to census and CDC data.

Previous surveys on the skepticism of the Covid-19 vaccine have shown that people have become less hesitant to see other people vaccinated. The census will continue to measure hesitation in the future, with data published every two weeks.

The Biden administration has said it plans to launch a specific vaccination campaign that focuses on people who show that the data is the most hesitant, including rural populations and communities of color.

The plan is to build trust in the vaccine in collaboration with doctors and nurses, religious groups and advocacy organizations working in these communities.

“Right now, we have a limited supply of vaccines and a high demand, but at some point in the future we will have more supply than demand,” said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Vaccination Managers, which represents state officials of vaccination. “We have to work very hard to establish trust in the vaccine and access to the vaccine in all communities to ensure we achieve vaccination levels to produce immunity in the herd.”

Opponents of vaccine needs have found common ground during the pandemic with suspects of pharmaceutical companies, business outages and other government restrictions. Among unvaccinated adults in the census survey who said they were unsure about getting vaccinated, 9% said they don’t like vaccines. Vaccine protesters disrupted a vaccination site at Dodger Stadium last week.

In the absence of a national and broad appeal, many Americans are forming opinions about Covid-19 vaccines on their own and have no plans to get vaccinated. “You can’t just say,‘ It’s here and if you don’t want it, you don’t want it, ’” said Parinda Khatri, clinical director of Cherokee Health Systems, who has been working on hesitant number hesitation in a system. sanitary covering 14 counties of Tennessee, from Appalachia to Memphis. “From the point of view of infection prevention and control, if you ignore 50% of people because you say, ‘Well, I’ve offered,’ we’re still at risk. ‘

Across all races, age groups, and regions of the country, concern about side effects was the most cited topic among hesitant respondents.

Christopher Thomas, a Minnesota cardiologist, said he tells his patients he had a fever for two days after receiving his second dose of vaccine and that he was easily controlled with a pair of acetaminophen. He tells them to compare this possible discomfort with the more serious complications and blood clotting he has seen in patients with Covid-19.

Lack of confidence in the government and the vaccines themselves was also high among people who planned to avoid gunfire, echoing previous polls that pointed to widespread distrust in institutions. The proportion of respondents who said they do not trust the government was higher among 18- to 25-year-olds. The cohort was almost twice as likely to cite these concerns as Americans over 65 years of age. They were also more likely to say that they thought others needed the vaccine more than they did.

About one-fifth of white and Hispanic adults do not plan to get vaccinated, while a third of black adults say they plan to avoid the shots, according to the survey, conducted in conjunction with the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ‘Health Statistics. The hesitation between the black and Hispanic population is a special concern for public health officials because these groups have been one of the populations most affected by the pandemic.

Public policy experts need to look for and prioritize the most at-risk populations, said Nancy Berlinger, a researcher at the Hastings Center, a bioethics think tank that has published guidelines on effectively prioritizing access to the Covid vaccine. -19.

“Low risk and high privilege are easy to vaccinate,” Dr. Berlinger said. “The infection will continue to spread. The virus works against you. The virus wins if people at high risk of infection remain at risk.

Dr. Chris Pernell, a physician from Newark, New Jersey, who focuses on broader community health needs and the systems that serve them, has been organizing live Zoom and Facebook sessions to connect with black communities and brown on the science behind the vaccine and recognize the reasons why some may distrust or doubt it. He said people are wanting information right now. Dr. Pernell, who is black, said she shares with her audience that she decided to participate in one of the first clinical trials of the vaccines and that she was also injured by Covid-19, which killed her father.

“The only thing you shouldn’t do is devalue or underestimate the concerns that exist in various communities,” Dr. Pernell said. “We cannot begin to embarrass or stigmatize groups where there have been historical injustices that have contributed to breaking trust.”

During his discussions, he sometimes acknowledges that some mistrust among blacks stems from the history of unethical medical research, such as the study of Tuskegee’s syphilis, which began in the 1930s and continued for 40 years. The black men who participated were not informed of the true nature of the investigation and some were deprived of penicillin when it was found to be an effective treatment.

Unvaccinated black adults, more than any other group, cited, among the reasons against the vaccine, that a doctor had not recommended it. In previous surveys, 79% of U.S. adults who had not yet been vaccinated said their health care provider’s opinion would be a key factor in their decision about whether to be vaccinated.

Write to Julie Wernau to [email protected]