The public's hesitancy with vaccines

    It seems like a popular item in the news recently is the COVID vaccine, and it’s no secret that many people are hesitant to get it. Whether that reason is because people believe the vaccine itself is too new, they’re scared of the side effects, they think the vaccine will change their DNA, or they just aren’t afraid of the virus in general, as pharmacy students we have the opportunity to educate the public with all the information we have available.Unfortunately, there is plenty of information circulating that may make the general public even more hesitant to get the vaccine. As we have learned in communication courses, educating people about the vaccine will only be productive if they are willing to listen, but it doesn’t hurt to try to have that conversation. 

    People may talk about how there is a decent number of health care professionals who are refusing to get the vaccine so this may deter the general public since it is health related. When the vaccines were first released over winter break, I was working at a hospital in Lansing and was vaccinating a majority of the staff. Since I only came into contact with people who were interested in getting vaccinated, I was interested in why the other nurses might choose not to. After talking with my mother who is a nurse at a different hospital, I learned that some of the main reasons (according to a few nurses she works with) include the vaccine itself being too new and the government’s involvement in pushing people to get vaccinated. I was worried that patients may be deterred from getting the vaccine if they only heard these opinions from healthcare workers. However, it was helpful to hear that when patients ask the nurses what their opinions are, they will only talk about the objective information that we know about and will not give their own opinions. This allows the patient to make an informed decision moving forward and can make that choice for themself.

    Another reason the general public may be concerned with getting vaccinated is CDC guidance on halting Johnson & Johnson vaccines due to blood clots. If someone only reads this headline, then there is concern that they might avoid the vaccines because they view them as potentially dangerous. In this situation it would be beneficial to have an open conversation about what we know about side effects, and in this situation we know that the blood clot side effect is extremely rare. The overall decision on whether that side effect is too common or too dangerous for public use is up to a much larger, and much more educated organization than myself, but I can at least present what we know currently. Also, it seems that a very similar situation with the Pfizer vaccine has been all but forgotten about since it first became available. After its release there was an increase in anaphylactic reactions, but currently many people state that is the only one they will get. The best thing that can be done when working in public as a healthcare professional is to keep up to date on any new data from manufacturers or guidance from government agencies, so we can continue to have educational conversations with our patients.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Much Needed Reform

 I think our country is amongst a very pivotal time where conversations about race and ethnicity permeate every facet of our lives. I would like to assume that American health systems are created equal and that everyone who seeks care will be afforded the same treatment and passion they deserve for being human, however, as a Black man in America I know that is not true. As with most major American institutions, healthcare needs to undergo drastic reform before it can truly attest to equality for everyone. There is a very blatant lack of representation of Black health professionals in the United States and it is reflected in the mortality rates of Black Americans across multiple health statistics. The effects can be seen in the overwhelming rate of Blacks who died from COVID as compared to other races or even the alarming high mortality rate of Black mothers who die during pregnancy or while giving birth. According an analysis conducted by NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene...
Read more

Mental Health and Care in Mainland China: Apps filling the gap? By: Vince A Alessi

Image
Mental Health and Care in Mainland China: Apps filling the gap?  By: Vince Alessi,   April 14th 2021     Mental health has historically been a highly stigmatized topic in developing nations that have recently undergone rapid transitions from being labeled a '3rd world' to a '1st world nation'. There are several examples of this, albeit predominantly in sino-eurasian nations. Historically, China has been amongst the most outwardly intolerant of mental health illness as comparable to more demonstrable physical maladies. In 2011, a study performed by  Whittington and Higgins indicated that the majority of Chinese nurses in nationally supported hospitals exhibited minimal or "zero-tolerance" for multiple behaviors commonly associated with one or more mental illness. Even to do this day, overall the Chines population does not engage in mental health services or make visits to a care provider with any frequency, as shown in the figure.    ...
Read more

Johnson & Johnson Recall

  Within this past week, we have witnessed the rise and fall of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. What once seemed as an attractive, one-dose, easier-temperature-requirements option has been removed from the market due to a serious side effect seen in 6 patients. There is a lot of backlash on taking this vaccination away for such a small amount of people with this response. This serious side effect is a rare form of blood clot called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST). A popular retort to this blood clot adverse effect is that many hormonal contraceptive products contain blood clot warnings. It is known that intake of estrogen-containing products can increase risk for deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), which are both forms of blood clots in the legs or lungs, respectively. While both of these are very concerning, CVST is most like an ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, but instead of the clot happening in an artery and blocking blood flow to the brain, t...
Read more