Right now the COVID-19 vaccine conversation is focused on the fretful disconnect between supply and demand. People who want it can’t get it. Appointments are made and then canceled. Frustration simmers.
That’s today’s reality. There will come a time, educated observers say, when the scenario flips and the rollout, after finally hitting a nice cruising speed, will run into a residual wall of vaccine hesitancy and resistance, the Heartbreak Hill at mile 20 of this marathon.
“Political leaders and public health experts need to recognize that what appears to be considerable public demand for the COVID-19 vaccine right now may be more modest in the coming months,” professors Matt Motta and Timothy Callaghan predict. “In its place, experts will be faced with the new challenge of convincing hesitant groups to get vaccinated in order to reach herd immunity… Developing these communications and identifying appropriate messengers to deliver this information will be vital to stopping the pandemic.”
The biggest problem, Bryan Walsh offers in Axios, may not be glitches in distribution or the threat posed by a growing horde of virus variants but “how to talk about vaccines to those who think the shots aren't worth it.” We’re selling the vaccine short, he suggests, because somewhere in the conversation a core reality is getting lost: Vaccines will save your life and the lives of those you love. “Americans need a clear message about the public and personal benefit of vaccination, lest we miss our best chance to stop this catastrophe,” Walsh says.
That message needs to be communicated in a thoughtful and empathetic way in order to vaccinate as many people as quickly as we can—and help the unvaccinated stay safe and healthy.
This week’s Vaccine Project Newsletter is 3,174 words long and will take you 10 minutes to read.
The communications effort
With the vaccine-hesitant, -reluctant or just plain worried, shaming and coercion won’t work. We stand a much better chance of success with a dose of friendly persuasion.
The takeaway: It’s important to emphasize what the vaccines can do and not what they can’t. Let’s not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good.
The rollout
We need to be able to say, “We’ve got this.”
The takeaway: More hands on deck mean more shots in arms.
The challenges
Who’s getting vaccinated, and when, is a crazy salad. Or maybe it’s a tossed salad, or a chopped salad. Take your pick.
The takeaway: Moral calculus in math class is followed by ethical calisthenics in gym. We need to find a way that is fair as fair can be. Anyone who is gaming the system is shaming the system.
The resources
Here are this week’s additions to our ever-growing lending library of information and insight, experience and expertise.
The takeaway: COVID-19 is its very own Continuing Medical Education course.
The vaccine dashboard
We’re just a couple of months away from having not two COVID-19 vaccines in hand (and in arms) but three, four or even five. There are more horses for the cavalry.
The takeaway: John Grabenstein, an epidemiologist with the Immunization Action Coalition, put it this way: “We’re going to need a bigger boat.”
… and some songs
Captain Sir Tom Moore, who raised nearly $45 million for National Health Service Charities Together last spring by doing laps with his walker around his garden, has died of pneumonia and COVID-19 at the age of 100. You must see his rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone, which became a #1 hit in the U.K.
Good as Hell, Lizzo. Healthcare workers in Boston Medical Center danced to this when they received their first shipment of vaccine.
Hugging You, Tom Rosenthal featuring Billie Marten
I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You, BeeGees
Reach Out (I’ll Be There), Four Tops
And that’s the way it is, as Walter Cronkite used to say on the evening news. We’ll be back tomorrow with your weekly Haymarket Media Coronavirus Briefing. Happy belated Groundhog Day. (“Well, what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today.”)