Bucks Montgomery Physician Summer 2021 - 18

FEATURE
Vaccine Hesitancy:
The Next Hurdle in The Fight
Against COVID-19
by Jerome Burke, MD, FACG
This article first appeared in The Intelligencer and Bucks County Courier Times.
https://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/story/opinion/2021/06/09/op-ed-vaccine-hesitancy-hurdle-fight-against-covid/7600863002/
S
ince its emergence from Wuhan Province China in
December 2019 - there have been over 170 million
reported cases and 3.4 million deaths worldwide from the
COVID-19 virus according to the World Health Organization.
In the United States, there have been 33 million infections
recorded with nearly 600,000 deaths. As testing for COVID-19
took months to ramp up, these numbers likely underestimate
the true case load and death rate. Nevertheless, these statistics
are staggering when one considers that COVID-19 has
claimed more American lives than World War 1, World War
2, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam War combined.
Moreover, the collateral damage wrought by the pandemic
including economic harm, spikes in depression, suicide and
addiction, social isolation of the elderly, adverse outcomes
resulting from postponement of routine medical care and
deleterious effects for many students given the challenges
of online instruction cannot be measured. Medical experts
advise that obtaining " herd immunity, " or having 70-80
percent of the population protected, is our best strategy
to return to normal life. Yet polls indicate that upward of
30 percent of the adult population are reluctant to sign up
for a COVID-19 vaccine. As access to vaccination in most
locations is readily available, our next challenge is to address
concerns of citizens who are unwilling to be vaccinated.
Vaccine hesitancy has deep roots in the United States. Studies
linking Autism to the DPT vaccine have been refuted in the
scientific community but still weigh in the collective Psyche. As
a people, we have become more distrustful of the government,
big tech, politicians, and scientists. This is not surprising
given the rampant misinformation on many social media
platforms. Surveys show that residents of rural areas, those
with lower education levels, blacks, and Latinos, who have
been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, Evangelical
16 BUCKS/MONTGOMERY PHYSICIAN summer 2021
Christians and Republicans are statistically less likely to agree
to vaccination. Thankfully, studies show that a large majority
of people trust their personal physicians. Keeping this in mind,
I encourage my patients to get vaccinated and ask during the
course of the visit if they have concerns about the vaccine.
These are some of the questions that are frequently posed.
Q. How did these vaccines get developed so fast?
Can I trust that these are not experimental?
A. The three vaccines available in the US (Pfizer, Moderna,
and Johnson and Johnson) have all undergone rigorous
Phase 1, 2 and 3 trials and have been studied in tens of
thousands of patients. Data Safety Monitoring
Committees (DSMC) were involved in all 3
phases and no steps were " skipped. " The RNA
vaccine technology, which was developed
in the early 2000s in response to SARS-I
and MERS, allowed for rapid manufacture
of the vaccine. " Operational Warp Speed "
provided financial support to pharmaceutical
companies to manufacture vaccines
before approval even in the face of
potential failure. It was a tremendous
accomplishment of both scientists
and the Trump Administration.

https://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/story/opinion/2021/06/09/op-ed-vaccine-hesitancy-hurdle-fight-against-covid/7600863002/

Bucks Montgomery Physician Summer 2021

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