Trust, fear, and solidarity determine the success of the COVID vaccine

When the coronavirus vaccine becomes available, do you come across grunts like polio vaccines and community yawns like firing measles? Or is it a strange hybrid of the two? Orenstein and other public health veterans and historians said trust in American authority, access to affordable vaccines, and solidarity would determine the outcome.

Awareness of a particular disease or vaccine reflects the seriousness of the disease itself, but general values, culture, human risk assessment, and politics all play an important role. Acceptance of public health measures, even in the face of masks and vaccines, is not entirely determined by the reasonable balance of risks and benefits.

We can see in the history of a national campaign for a new vaccine intended to defeat the tragedy. No disease was more feared than polio in the mid-20th century. With the exception of AIDS, until the advent of COVID-19, there were no feared diseases.

The polio vaccine was one of the few publicly enthusiastic greetings. Diseases such as measles and whooping cough were well-known childhood distress. Most of the time, they killed more children than polio, but polio, who put people in iron lungs and leg struts, seemed like an infant death certificate was hidden in a drawer, and never looked I saw.

Despite the fact that vaccines are generally very safe, they are often difficult to sell as they prevent rather than cure the disease and appear horrifying. Because vaccines must be widely used to prevent epidemics, a successful vaccination campaign relies heavily on trust in the people who sell, recommend, and administer drugs. Also, trust in science, government and business is not always stable.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, when public health legislation was in flux, authorities fighting the smallpox epidemics often sent vaccinated people to police to force abuse. They entered the factory where the incident was reported, locked doors, and frogged workers through vaccination lines. The resistance of the workers was not innocent. The vaccine sometimes caused arm swelling, fever, and bacterial infections. The vaccination missed a week’s wages.

Authors learned their lesson by the 1920s, when the diphtheria vaccine emerged, as James Colgrove wrote in his book. Immune Status: Vaccination Politics in the 20th Century America.. Diphtheria was a murderer who feared children a lot, and publicity campaigns run by public health officials, insurance companies, and charities aimed at education and persuasion, not compulsion.

Polio scared Americans, peaking in 1952, with more than 57,000 cases. In 1938, his own polio patient, Franklin D. Roosevelt, launched a national science program to combat this disease, backed by the contributions of millions of Americans through Dime March.

As a result of this national quest, the inactivated polio vaccine of Jonas Salk was born by connecting the government and people. It cemented a strong post-WWII credibility in the American scientific and medical facilities that lasted for years.

Social solidarity was also important.

Vaccines prevent the circulation of disease among unvaccinated people through what scientists call immunity to herds when enough people are vaccinated. When the reliable rubella vaccine became available in 1969, rubella was actually harmless to children, but the state soon needed childhood vaccination. They want to protect vulnerable populations, pregnant women to prevent the recurrence of the 1963-64 congenital rubella epidemic and prevent the birth of 30,000 fetal deaths and the birth of more than 20,000 severely disabled children. I was thinking.

As ruling historian Elena Connis of the University of California, Berkeley wrote in her book, the adoption of the rubella vaccine Vaccine States: Immunization and Changing US RelationshipsIt was the first time a vaccine was deployed that did not directly benefit the vaccinated population.

Still, to raise childhood vaccination rates for measles, whooping cough, rubella, and diphtheria to more than 90% in the 1990s, CDC and state public health Orenstein and his colleagues fear, solidarity, and enforce coercion. Combined to guarantee herd immunity.

Shame was also a tool. Orenstein recalled having witnessed the Florida Legislature while considering a more stringent vaccine directive. He showed them that the incidence of illness was lower in more demanding neighbors. done.

What’s different now In a politically divided country, trust in science is low and experts are not. Childhood vaccination efforts are already plagued by many hesitant parents. Also, efforts to combat the epidemic of COVID in the United States are at best awkward and chaotic, with Americans questioning the capabilities of governments and institutions.

I’m still afraid. “I may be an old-fashioned idiot, but I think most people will welcome a vaccine if it is deployed properly,” said New York University professor of history, Polio: American story, History of winning the Pulitzer Prize. “Most people are desperately afraid of COVID. Minorities are pinching their noses. Many of them are for political reasons. How does this change with a vaccine? [hopefully] Do you change the health risk equation to some extent? “

A recent survey Only half of Americans have been vaccinated COVID-19 (New Coronavirus Infection) (# Add parentheses when first appearing if there is no character limit. Berkeley’s Connis said these numbers could change depending on some unpredictable factors. Said there is.

“Many people really want to get it,” she said. “Most will hesitate, not only because of false information, but also because of lack of trust in the current administration.”

When a coronavirus vaccine is introduced, even young and healthy people may be sold as personal protection. However, the people who are most afflicted with the virus are usually the elderly or sick. Effective vaccination campaigns may not only try to plant a sense of solidarity and altruism, but also a more general sense that without vaccination the economy cannot recover.

“It’s not clear if people will accept that solidarity,” Orenstein said. “People want more of themselves than of society”, but the risk of COVID-19 for young people is “not zero. This is, in a sense, one of the main ways to sell it.” It is.”

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a non-profit news service that covers health issues. It is an editorial independent program KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) We are not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.