Vaccine hesitancy is rampant in America and other parts of the world where people have chosen to politically and culturally align themselves with an anti-vax stance when it comes to COVID-19 and sometimes even vaccines in general. “I don’t trust the COVID vaccine,” they say, citing a rare side effect or a clinging hope of being naturally immune. What they mean is “I don’t trust science”. Despite expert approval from both scientists and governments, people are shying away from vaccines that have been developed with care and are a proven solution to the end of the pandemic, along with masking and social distancing. To convince these people, we must first understand who they are and why they put themselves in this position. Before that, we need to briefly address why convincing them even matters.
A KFF survey found that in America, around 20% of the population is hesitant to get vaccinated against COVID. This 20% can be further split up into two groups: 7% of the population is open to getting a vaccine if it is required for work, school, and other activities, and 13% of the population refusing to get the vaccine under any circumstances. This is concerning because for the population to be properly inoculated against COVID-19, we will need a large number of people vaccinated.
On the individual level, getting vaccinated can save these people from the more severe side effects of COVID-19, requiring ICU treatment, and possibly even death. On a community level, increased vaccinations will help curb the spread of the virus and dangerous viral variants even more and protect those at high risk from becoming infected with a more robust COVID-19 variant by those who are not vaccinated.
Herd immunity is commonly discussed as a benefit of mass vaccinations as well. Whether our nation will reach herd immunity is still unclear and possibly unlikely, because of how quickly the COVID-19 virus is evolving, but it is still a possibility. To work towards herd immunity, Dr. Fauci stated that we would need 75%-85% of the country to be vaccinated. If 20% of the population refuses vaccination, we are already pushed to borderline chances and since children cannot get vaccinated yet, this percentage cannot be reached till the end of the year when vaccinations for children are available. By that time, herd immunity may be a lost cause. Urging people to get vaccinated may increase the chances of herd immunity in our community or at least decrease infection rates to the point where we can resume daily activities safely much earlier.
But why is now the time to convince those that are hesitant to receive the vaccine? Most people who want to get vaccinated have already been presented with the opportunity to do so by now, with a few exceptions I will get into later. America’s vaccination program is well underway, with 147 million people having received at least a single vaccine dose as of May 2nd and over 105 million people having received both doses. However, vaccination rates in the nation have been dropping as of the peak of 3.4 million vaccinations a week in mid-April, as seen in the graph above. They have now dropped to around 2.6 million vaccinations a week, and supply is not the problem. The federal government and local regimes have a surplus of vaccination stock but demand for the vaccines has gone down. Some places have so many vaccines wasted in a day that they are trying to lower the number of acquired vaccine doses (CNBC).
We now have the vaccines available to vaccinate everyone, even those who don’t want them. Now is the time to focus our efforts on convincing those people who are hesitant to get vaccinated. By the end of summer, getting children vaccinated will be the new priority, but before that, we have the potential to urge millions of adult Americans to protect themselves and others by getting vaccinated.
Many of the people who refuse to get vaccinated identify as white evangelicals, Republicans, and very often as both. Multiple studies have identified Republicans as being the most hesitant to get vaccines in comparison to other social groups, and the survey data analyzed by the New York Times has found that around 45% of Republicans do not plan to get vaccinated. This hesitancy may be attributed to the downplaying of the virus by the former president, Donald Trump, and the public health measures against COVID-19 being labeled as restrictions of freedom by many government leaders of the Republican party.
Though formerly a nonpartisan movement, the anti-vax movement as a whole has also become associated with the Republican party recently on similar assumptions. Outspoken Republicans like Candace Owens often take to social media to share their anti-vax stances, as seen in her daily tweets. The belief that vaccinations are “unnatural”, immunity is already present, and COVID-19 vaccines, as well as other vaccines, are all part of a government attempt to exert control over the people immorally are all common beliefs of anti-vaxxers. Exemptions of mandatory vaccines for religious reasons are also talking points of anti-vaxxers. They essentially don’t trust science and think it violates “freedom".
Social media has become a large platform for sharing fear-mongering stories about COVID-19 vaccinations. One NPR study found that “Every day from Jan. 7 through Jan. 20, at least one story linking a vaccine to a death was among the 10 most-engaged-with stories about vaccines”. Similar statistics have followed in the months after this study as well. Many of these vaccination stories are not false but are stated extremely out of context: the people in these stories have gotten vaccinated and have developed an illness, but the link between these two events is unclear or nonexistent. This gray area makes moderation of such stories difficult and contributes to public hesitancy regarding vaccinations. Recently, the brief Johnson and Johnson vaccine recall after 6 blood clot cases also contributed to skepticism. Many people decided to focus on the few incidences of side effects instead of looking at the fact that out of 8 million people vaccinated with it, only 6 had serious problems.
Increasing the scope of public health campaigns to promote COVID-19 vaccinations and starting meaningful conversations with Republican friends about getting vaccinated can help convince them to make this important decision. One rural community in New Mexico was able to host town halls to educate locals about the importance of getting vaccinated and combat misinformation regarding the COVID-19 vaccines. Each town hall event was followed by a spike in vaccine registration (CNBC), showing how effective local vaccination support can be. For those who remain reluctant even then, vaccination requirements in places of employment, schools, and other activities may be the only remedy.
It is also important to identify that some individuals who are not getting vaccinated are not hesitant to do so but rather don’t have the means to do so. Those in rural areas and poorer communities may not have access to the internet and therefore, cannot boot vaccination appointments. Rural areas may also have fewer vaccination sites, and setting up mobile vaccine units in these places and moving from town to town may prove effective in assisting residents with getting vaccinated. Yet others work almost all day, even in cities, and may not have the time or methods of transportation required to go to a vaccine site and get vaccinated. Extending vaccination sites to places of employment themselves has been able to help these people who are interested in getting vaccinated do so.
Other social groups who are hesitant to get vaccinated include the Amish on the East Coast. The Amish live a conservative way of life, without technology and cut off from the rest of the world. Their communities have been hit the hardest by COVID-19 because of how close-knit their lifestyles are. Some Amish believe they have herd immunity because of how many cases there have already been in their communities. Most others just have a strong sense of identity and isolation from the outside world, including suspicion of government programs, and do not trust the COVID-19 vaccines. One county in Ohio with a 50% Amish population has less than a 10% vaccination rate, further behind most counties in the country.
Encouraging vaccinations in the Amish community through more engagement and increased accessibility to vaccinations in the community can make a significant difference. The Amish people may have difficulty going to vaccination sites that are far away from their communities since their methods of transportation are limited, so increasing the number of vaccination sites within Amish villages directly can help the Amish get vaccinated as well.
America is not the only country struggling with vaccine hesitancy. Russia, multiple Arab countries, and parts of Europe are also facing similar challenges in convincing people to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Many of these countries can also attempt these solutions of increased accessibility in rural areas, local government informational campaigns, and vaccine requirements.
This pandemic will end and should end. The vaccines are a big part of this end and the more people who get them, the safer we will be. Unless you have serious health concerns, I do hope you, my readers, get the COVID-19 vaccine and continue to stay safe. Do your part and educate yourself and your communities about the importance of getting vaccinated to help limit vaccine hesitancy!