- Some voices for public health underline the benefits of the COVID vaccine.
- The vaccinations are extremely effective and will pave the way for life to return to normal.
- We need to emphasize these benefits instead of hedging.
- This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
David Leonhardt writes for the New York Times that some public health voices are suppressing the vaccination, and he was right. So much of the message we hear about the COVID-19 vaccines – even from sources who want us to get it as soon as possible – talks about the vaccines. Some officials and media sources have persisted in emphasizing that the vaccines are not entirely effective; we do not yet know how much they are doing to prevent the transfer; and that being vaccinated does not mean that you can go back to normal life.
At the same time, the same officials and sources express their concern that not enough people are interested in getting the vaccine. The reluctance is driven in part by excessive (if understandable) fears about the risks of getting the vaccine. But is it not logical that people would also be reluctant to get the vaccine if so many of the messages about the vaccine about its benefits are limited and qualified?
As Leonhardt points out, there are many good reasons to believe that the vaccine is better than you may have heard – and experts will tell you if you ask them the right questions. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are approximately 95% effective in preventing COVID-19 and are probably even more effective in preventing severe cases of COVID. And there are good reasons to believe that it will be effective at population level to reduce the spread of the virus.
And some of the warnings you hear about the vaccine are a repetition of a logical flaw we’ve suffered over the past year: the absence of evidence as proof of absence.
Under-sales likely benefits
We do not yet have a study that proves that vaccination significantly reduces the risk of someone getting the coronavirus and spreading it because the Pfizer and Modern vaccine studies examined how effective the vaccines were in preventing symptomatic diseases, not asymptomatic ones. Similarly, the lack of studies proving the effectiveness of simple masks delayed their acceptance last year. But randomized controlled trials are not the only source of scientific knowledge.
As experts describe to Leonhardt, it would be unusual if one that is so effective at preventing disease, based on our experience with other vaccines, is also not effective at preventing transmission, although we have not proven that in a study is not. In addition, as dr. Paul Sax noted in the New England Journal of Medicine, participants in the Moderna trial were tested for asymptomatic infection one month after their first dose, and even with just one dose, participants who received the vaccine were significantly less infected than those who received a placebo.
It’s true that a vaccine shot in your arm does not mean you can do it immediately go back to normal. The vaccines will only be fully effective two weeks after the second dose (although there is significant partial efficacy two weeks after the first dose.) And a system where vaccinated people roam masklessly in public spaces while the non-vaccinated continue. to conceal is probably logistically untenable, even before considering the risk of asymptomatic spread.
This is an ideal time to give this message about the need for caution and patience after vaccination: when people get their shots. At that point, they are being sold with the vaccine, and they are a prisoner for medical professions.
But for the general public, these messages need to be tempered with messages about the great personal benefit of vaccination. The vaccine reduces your own personal risk of disease. And as Leonhardt notes, people who get the vaccine will be reasonably able to resume certain activities they would have previously avoided, such as family gatherings between generations that involve close contact, even before the wider society is back to normal. Instead of becoming silent, this observation should be used as a selling point for the vaccine.
We need to accept a more positive vaccine message
An apparent concern that is causing the cautious messages against vaccines is that if we tell people a too positive story about the vaccine, they will get the chance to carry transmission once it has been injected. There is one problem with this concern: people have already borne the transmission risks. Look around you. In most parts of the country, COVID spreads like wildfire.
Rather than take the opportunity to scold the public, I think it’s worth thinking about why we had an uncontrolled distribution. We see that the social changes needed to control the spread of COVID without a vaccine are unsustainable in our society. You can say as much as you want on Twitter ‘it’s not difficult’, but asking people to give up normal social contact, family activities, religious practice and trade for almost a year is a big question. Many people say no.
This pandemic has expanded to a significant portion of a lifetime, and the oldest Americans at greatest risk for severe COVID also have the greatest reason to wonder what part of their remaining life expectancy in isolation is expected. You could argue that in some cases it is reasonable for people to have looked at the situation and decided that it is worth taking significant COVID risks to return to a more normal life, but the most important thing is that it is inevitable that some people have decided so. .
There are three reasons why this situation needs more positive messages about the personal benefits of the vaccine.
One is that, if people are not going to be very conscientious about other measures to prevent spread, it is especially important to get them vaccinated to reduce the risks to themselves and others.
The second is that a message about the fact that you can change safely soon – instead of to cheerfully tell people that pandemic conditions are here to stay – gives people more reason to comply with restrictions in the short term.
And a third is that the social exhaustion with COVID preventive measures reflects the extent to which this crisis has exploited the empathy of people. Since there is a true and fascinating message about the individually, personally benefits of being vaccinated, it is better to rely on them than to ask for more messages about how important it is to be vaccinated for the sake of others.
The vaccines are amazing – ideal for society, and ideal for the people who get them. We should not be ashamed to tell people that the vaccine will change their lives. It gives them a good reason to want to be vaccinated, and it even gives them a good motivation to maintain responsible behavior for a short time before they are protected by vaccination.