Five years after Covid, more Texans are escheating the vaccine – for all

Round Rock's family doctor Dr. Tina Phillip has been in the same conversation with her patients recently. She encourages them to get vaccinated for COVID and the flu. They say no.

“I even had a patient who had the flu vaccine every year before, but now, “No, I'm not going to do that anymore,” Philip said.

At the end of 2021, 77% of Travis County residents Being over 5 years old, you have received at least one Covid vaccine. Much of that was after eagerly waiting for a shot that could bring a little normality to their lives. But as of this month, only 23% of adults received their latest shots, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Similarly, the CDC reports that influenza vaccination rates have been steadily tracking downwards since 2019.

More kindergarteners are opting out of school vaccine requirements, and state lawmakers are trying to make it even easier.

Dr. Claire Bocchini, an infectious disease expert at Texas Children's Hospital, said vaccine hesitancy was rising even before Covid-19 emerged, but the pandemic has exacerbated the trend.

“I think we've seen an increase in vaccine hesitation in general as Covid vaccines are gaining media attention online through social media and generating misinformation,” Bocchini said.

What are you driving?

Kut News received more than 200 responses to this month's survey on attitudes towards vaccines. Many respondents said education on the Covid-19 vaccine has strengthened the importance of vaccinations to protect themselves and their communities.

But like Austin resident Alicia Ziangiacomo, they said they became more skeptical after the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.

Giangia Como was nervous about how quickly it was developed just because she was never needed.

“I want to believe that our health organizations and pharmaceutical companies will introduce due diligence to create safe vaccines,” she said. “But I don't think they're making that kind of effort.”

In fact, the first vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna were quickly tracked under the Trump administration's “Project Warp Speed,” but were developed from existing research and tested in large clinical trials before approval for emergency use in the US.

Gabriel C. Perez

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KUT News

Jiangiacomo also said he was disappointed that the vaccine would not prevent the virus from spreading. She said health leaders are misleading about it.

But ahead of the initial release of the vaccine, experts said I didn't understand If the vaccine prevents transmission. But they revealed that it prevents severe cases of the disease and keeps people out of hospitals – and that was true.

“From my perspective as an infectious disease expert, this vaccine has impacted people without being in hospitals and not dying from the infectious disease, so that they can become community and still do well,” Bocchini said. “It made a huge difference to my job.”

However, most people are not infectious disease experts and are unable to see what Bocchini sees every day.

Dr. Mark Escott served as Austin's top public health official through Covid heights. He is now the city of Austin's chief medical officer. Looking back, he said health leaders could have done a better job of letting them know how vaccines work, such as some types of vaccines have declined over time, and they need regular boosters like shots of flu, and now they need covid vaccines and more.

“I think one lesson we've learned is that we have to ensure that the public understands that, as we do,” he said. “We don't want to sell too much of anything that tries to achieve our public health goals.”

The role of misinformation

As Bocchini pointed out, there was also serious misinformation about vaccines that circulated during the pandemic. Not just Covid, it's continuing. Bocchini said parents who come to her practice often mistakenly believe that if they get a vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, their child is at risk of developing autism. That theory is repeated It was exposed.

“The vaccines don't cause autism,” she said. “The vaccine has very small side effects, but it's very safe.”

The fewer people get vaccinated for infectious diseases like measles, the higher the interest. The decline in vaccination rates led to a revival of once-induced diseases. One child and one adult died amid outbreaks in West Texas and New Mexico. Dozens have been hospitalized.

Meanwhile, America's largest health officer, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has repeatedly downplayed misinformation about measles severity and vaccines.

Escott said he hopes outbreaks like Texas will remind people how dangerous measles is. It generally leads to complications like pneumonia, and sometimes causes swelling in brain and other life-threatening or impaired conditions.

“That alone might be enough to push people onto the line and say, so maybe now is the right time to vaccinate my child,” he said.

Jiangiacomo said she is paying attention to the latest measles outbreak and reminds her that her vaccine is important. In the past, she has confirmed that her daughter will receive the standard childhood vaccine, and she is now considering whether to vaccinate future children she may have.

“We've been vaccinated [for diseases like measles] For decades. They are clearly working to eradicate these diseases within our community. “It's a pretty big deal and I'm standing behind it.”

Break through the noise

With the rise of social media, Escott said the public has to look into more information these days.

“Public health is used to communicate science and charts and graphs,” he said. “We need to understand how people think and how they process information.”

For some, the public health message has broken through the noise, even during a continuing year of the pandemic.

Take Cecilia Millerez. The 46-year-old Austin jewelry maker grew up in a family skeptical of Western medicine. Before the pandemic, she didn't see the GP, refused the vaccine and avoided the drug.

“When Covid happened and when it seemed the vaccine was the only way, I was probably trying to open up to my mind about taking the vaccine,” she said.

After coordinating reports on vaccine development and vaccine risk research, Millerez said she found that some of her beliefs about vaccines were unfounded, like the myth that it could cause autism. She decides to get a shot of Covid.

“I got all the vaccines there,” she said with a laugh. “I did that 180.”