Health community looks to educate, encourage those wary to get COVID-19 vaccine

With the possibility of another vaccine getting approved, that means you could get your shot soon. It especially can’t happen soon enough for health workers, but there are some groups that aren’t lining up to roll up their sleeves.

At a time when the country needs everyone who can to get a vaccine, experts say the latest polls are concerning.

“Twenty-one percent of U.S. adults say they don’t intend to get vaccinated, and they’re pretty certain more information will not change their mind,” said Dr. Susan Bailey, the president of the American Medical Association. “That’s the part that worries me.”

Bailey says, since we need up to 80% of people vaccinated to slow the spread, something has to change.

“Lives are at stake, and the confidence needed to spur widespread public acceptance of this vaccine must not be jeopardized,’ Bailey said.

Americans in minority groups are among those who are showing wariness toward getting vaccinated, and their present concerns stem from past abuses.

Dr. Leon McDougle, with the National Medical Association says, recent events have also had a negative impact.

“Some of the political influence that seems to have created a cloud and has led to increased mistrust in the Black community as it pertains to vaccines and therapeutics,” McDougle said.

Health experts with the COVID Collaborative say, while the pandemic has hit Black and Latinx Americans harder, a significant majority don’t trust the vaccine. To rebuild that confidence, McDougle says people of color need to be included in all aspects of the vaccines from the science to the rollout.

This time, that’s happening.

“We’ve been meeting with Pfizer, Moderna and Astrazeneca, and those discussions about our concerns have gone well,” McDougle said.

Both Florida Department of Health in Collier County and the Healthcare Network say they’re working on an education and outreach plan to encourage Immokalee’s farmworker community to get the vaccine when it comes out as well.