What if many Americans oppose the coronavirus vaccine?

Tuesday, August 25, 2020 (HealthDay News)-Scientists around the world are competing to test and manufacture one or more coronavirus vaccines. But once a vaccine proves to be safe and effective, one big question remains.

Health professionals have a reason to worry.

According to two recent polls in the U.S., less than half of American adults plan to receive the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available. Yahoo News/ YouGov and NBC News/ Survey Monkey. But stopping a pandemic requires herd immunity-estimated when an estimated 60-70% of the population are immune to the virus.

“This will be one of the most important parts of the vaccination campaign,” said Dr. Ameja Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Health and Safety Center in Baltimore. “We don’t want anyone to question the effectiveness of the vaccine-if it has been shown to be effective and safe-this really puts the virus under control and a threat. It’s the only way to remove it. That’s it.”

Only two of the many experts across the country who are planning the moment when the vaccination is approved are Adalja and Dr. Kelly Moore, associate director of vaccination education. recently HD live! interview, They talked about why people may hesitate to be vaccinated, and how health care systems and governments can ensure that vaccination is the right choice ..

Both Moore and Adalha tried to solve one of the concerns of vaccine skeptics-the vaccine is in hurry and is not safe. Despite the name given to the government’s vaccine program-Operation Warp Speed-, Moore and Adalya claimed that no steps were skipped.

“When we call this Warp Speed ​​Operations, Warp Speed ​​builds things into clinical trials,” Adalja explained. “It’s not a clinical trial. It will still take the same amount of time.”

Moore also said, “We are not taking any steps that affect our ability to know that this is safe. We are not taking shortcuts. We need a safe and effective vaccine to reach the public as fast as humankind.” It just simplifies the delivery process.

Even imperfect vaccines save lives

A safe vaccine has not yet been proven, so some of the current skepticism may be resolved with further answers. However, while clinical trials are still in progress, Moore said the question about future vaccine safety and efficacy is “fully normal.”

“The question is normal and relevant-I also have questions about how the vaccine works, what doses do I need, and what are the side effects,” she said. “We need to get answers to questions from these ongoing Phase 3 clinical trials.”

Others may want to wait for a “complete” vaccine-but as Adalja explained, first-generation vaccines are probably not 100% effective, but they hospitalize people. May move away from you. “We can accept what isn’t really the best vaccine, but it’s enough to get over this serious part of the pandemic,” he said.

If the first available vaccine is 50% effective, which means that vaccinated people are 50% less likely to get COVID-19 than unvaccinated people.

And even if people who have been vaccinated with this hypothesis may still get infected, they are less likely to require hospitalization or die. “These are still very valuable propositions for vaccines,” Adalha said. “The main thing this is done is to keep our hospital and its capabilities manageable.”

Once the vaccine is approved, high-risk groups, such as health care workers and the elderly, may be vaccinated first. Then the effort to vaccinate the public begins.

Moore said transparency is key to gaining public confidence in the vaccine. “Very transparent about how well this vaccine works, what we can expect of it, and what side effects it has-to partner with them-to communicate with the public It’s our job,” she said. “They need to understand whether they should expect arm pain or fever for a day or two as the vaccine works.

Counter the anti-boxer

In the Vaccination Action Coalition, Moore works with clinicians, pharmacists, and other vaccination groups to prepare for the first COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available.

“Our best partner is a private clinic and pharmacy that administers many seasonal influenza vaccines each year,” Moore said. “We will build this infrastructure to make this vaccine more publicly available and accessible.”

And this fall flu season may be a good habit.

“This fall’s seasonal flu vaccination program is a great warm-up game for next year’s big game at COVID-19,” Moore said. “For clinics vaccinated with seasonal influenza vaccines, they need to see how to vaccinate everyone in their practice. That should be their goal.”

Vaccination skepticism was already a major health issue, but the global pandemic should serve as a rallying cry to combat the opposition to vaccination.

“In order to fight as hard as we can, we must be proactive in responding to the anti-vaccine message and the imminent message of the vaccine,” he said. “We can really get this high vaccine uptake by really talking about the risks and benefits of this vaccine and making the data very transparent to infectious and family doctors and public health advocates. It will be important.”

For more information

There are details about the vaccine Center for Disease Control and Prevention..