Rollout lacks message that COVID-19 vaccination ‘will change your life’
In a recent Infectious Diseases Society of America press briefing, Amesh A. Adalja, MD, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said most vaccine hesitancy is a result of misinformation.
Want to change people’s minds about COVID-19 vaccines? The solution may be in the message.
“These vaccines are something that will change your life,” Adalja said. “I think that messaging has been missing a lot — people have not necessarily thought of this vaccine as something that improves their life personally.”
Adalja said the vaccines overall have been effective at “de-fanging” the virus, and that the public should know that the vaccine will allow people to engage in activities without fears of disruption from the virus.
He told Healio that public guidance should emphasize activities that fully vaccinated individuals can participate in and should be “individualized” to include events like sitting in a bar or attending a party. Vaccine hesitant individuals should “have their concerns addressed as best as possible using data,” he said, as they may have unique concerns that need to be discussed.
Ali H. Mokdad, PhD, professor of health metrics sciences at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and chief strategy officer for population health at the University of Washington, emphasized that vaccine hesitancy will hinder the potential for the U.S. to reach herd immunity. He said the proportion of individuals willing to be vaccinated varies by state — from 49% in Wyoming to 86% in Washington, D.C.
“We believe we will reach a time soon when we will have more vaccines than we will demand, and that is a big concern,” Mokdad said during the IDSA briefing.
Model shows 619K deaths by August
According to Mokdad, the IHME projects that 619,000 Americans will have died from COVID-19 by Aug. 1. The projection suggests that 4.7 million deaths from the virus will have occurred globally by August.
As of Friday, more than 3 million people have died of COVID-19 worldwide, including more than 570,000 Americans, according to tracking by Johns Hopkins University.
CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, said during a White House briefing this week that the 7-day average in new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is higher than it was a month ago. Walensky spoke Monday, the same day that every U.S. adult became eligible to receive a vaccine.
“We all have a role in turning the tide and to trend our cases down. One of the most important things we can do to get back to doing the things we love is to get vaccinated,” she said.
Mokdad told Healio that, although vaccination numbers are the best predictor for future infection rates, masks are “key” because even vaccine-hesitant individuals can wear a mask to mitigate the spread of the virus.
“As people — especially those outside of rich countries — wait to get a vaccine, they all have access to a mask,” he said.
The next 6 months
The subject of the IDSA briefing was “What to expect 6 months from now.” One topic that came up was COVID-19 vaccine mandates in schools, which Adalja said are not likely in the short term but may be possible in the future.
“Eventually this should be a vaccine that becomes a part of entry criteria for schools. Private schools will likely do it first and then we will see public schools do it,” Adalja said. “It will probably be a fight. I don't think it will happen in the short term — it will take some time and require full FDA approval in children.”
Adalja said vaccination has helped diminish the “immense burden” faced by hospitals in the U.S.
“We do not worry about hospital capacity in the way that we did in the past because even if cases are occurring, they are increasingly being decoupled from hospitalizations and deaths,” he said.
Experts worried last year about the possibility of a “twindemic” of COVID-19 and influenza in the U.S., which could have stressed already overwhelmed hospitals even further. It never materialized, however, as the U.S. has experienced “unusually low” influenza activity due to pandemic-related mitigation efforts.
Adalja told Healio that, while it is “unclear” what the next influenza season will be like, it is still important that hospitals consider capacity concerns for influenza at all times.
“Hopefully, we will have a mild flu season again and a vaccine update for both flu and COVID-19 will be enough to keep hospitals from having any issues in the future,” he said.
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