Although access to COVID-19 vaccines remains limited, the survey suggests that a slice of Americans want to “wait and see” how photos work for others before getting vaccinated on their own.
But experts say that administering the vaccine as soon as it is available to you will be vital to protecting you and others, stopping virus variants in their wake and resuming a certain level of normalcy.
The share of people in this “wait and see” category has declined over time, according to surveys conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation think tank, which fell from 39% in December to 31% in January. In February, the most recent poll, it was 22%. This was accompanied by a gradual increase in the share of respondents (most recently 55%) who reported that they either received at least one dose or would receive the vaccine as soon as possible.
Black adults (34%), young adults aged 18 to 29 (33%), Hispanic adults (26%), adults without higher education (25%) and non-health essential workers (25%) had the largest shares of respondents in the “wait and see” group.
The most common concerns in the waiting and visiting cohort were the potential for serious side effects; the possibility of obtaining COVID-19 from the vaccine, which the health authorities say cannot happen; the prospect of lack of work due to side effects; and the potential need to pay out-of-pocket for the vaccine, although vaccines are free. A quarter of those expected and seen said a single-dose vaccine would make them more likely to get shot.
Susan Lopez, a hospitalist affiliated with Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, says community members raised questions about the expectation of COVID-19 vaccination during each of her 12 vaccination sessions.
“I have a lot of questions about the long-term effects, like months and years later, especially when it comes to mRNA vaccines, because they keep hearing about the new technology,” Lopez told MarketWatch. Many people also feel overwhelmed by the technological logistics of registering for a meeting with the vaccine, she added.
Lopez said he tells community members that they want to wait until he is there to give them the information they need to make the best decision for them. But she assures them that no safety steps have been taken in the vaccine development process, that all vaccines have been studied and that researchers will continue to gather safety information.
Lopez stressed the importance of asking people why they want to wait rather than assume. Healthcare professionals should recognize that these feelings are valid, she said, while answering questions and providing information.
About one-fifth of respondents to the latest KFF survey said they would certainly not be vaccinated (15%) or would only do so if necessary (7%). However, KFF chief executive Drew Altman compared the waiting cohort to “convincing voters”. He argued that these should be a key focus in efforts to build trust in vaccines, “especially in black and Latino communities, where the need to build trust in vaccines and address information needs and barriers to access are the most urgent ”.
He also predicted that many could get shot after seeing people they know are vaccinated without incident.
“Those whose minds can be changed more easily are part of the ‘wait and see’ group – and we hope all their minds can be changed,” said David Abramson, a clinical associate professor of social and behavioral sciences at NYU School of Global Health. public, which conducts research on vaccine hesitation and has not been involved in KFF research.
“If that were the case, we would be close to 80% [coverage] and that would be great, “Abramson added. “We would be at the rate of immunity of the flock we would like to be at.”
The Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization for Pfizer with two doses of PFE,
-BioNTech BNTX,
and Modern MRNA,
vaccines, as well as Johnson & Johnson JNJ,
vaccine.
On Thursday afternoon, 64 million people in the United States (19.3% of the total population) had received at least one dose of vaccine, and 33.8 million (10.2% of the population) had been completely vaccinated, according to the Center for US Disease Control and Prevention.
“It generally scares them how bad COVID can be.”
What’s the rush to get vaccinated? For starters, the longer you wait, the longer you are protected from COVID-19, said Alison Buttenheim, a behavioral epidemiologist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.
People tend to have concerns about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine, she added, but many do not adequately weigh the risks of the disease they are trying to prevent. “It’s very easy to just focus on the benefits and potential harms and risks of the vaccine and just ignore the disease,” she said. “We all misjudge our risk.”
William Parker, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago with personal experience in caring for patients with severe COVID-19, says he emphasizes waiting and seeing people not want to see him in the hospital.
“It generally scares them how bad COVID can be,” Parker said. What is so interesting about vaccines is that they are extremely effective in preventing these very bad results – hospitalizations and deaths.
The virus has killed more than 530,000 people in the United States since Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
A race to “starve the host virus” – and avoid variants
The urgency comes from the need to “starve the host virus,” Abramson said. Public health professionals want to reduce the number of people in a community who are potential carriers and transmitters of the virus, he said, so as more and more people are vaccinated, “this will soon begin to suppress the virus population itself. ”
Health professionals also want to quickly eliminate the number of people with COVID-19, added Abramson – “and for every day that people wait and don’t get vaccinated, it’s another day when they have at least the opportunity to he fell ill at worst, being hospitalized and perhaps even dying. ”
“For me, speed is really the answer here,” he said.
The threat of COVID-19 variants also makes vaccination a sensitive target in time, experts say. The variant first identified in South Africa, for example, is more infectious and appears to make coronavirus vaccines less effective. A British scientist warned last month that the more infectious variant first identified in Britain could “sweep the world”.
“Because the virus has more time and more hosts to interact with, there is a greater chance that additional variants will appear or variants currently circulating will become stronger in the population and become more severe.” Said Abramson. “It’s really just a mathematical game to reduce the number of potential hosts.”
Lopez added: “Every opportunity we have to protect people sooner rather than later will be a chance to save a life or save someone from the long-term effects of COVID.”
“A way back to normal”
The CDC said this week that fully vaccinated people can gather inside and unmask other fully vaccinated people. I can do this with unvaccinated people from another household, assuming that no one in that household has an increased risk of COVID-19.
(Fully vaccinated people, ie those who had the second or only dose of the vaccine at least two weeks earlier, must wear masks and practice physical distance in public, the guide added.)
The CDC’s guidance, along with any additional guidance at the state level, will provide “a way back to normal” for many people, Abramson said. “The sooner people get vaccinated, the sooner they will be able to take advantage of changes in spacing protocols, protection measures, etc.,” he said.
“My wife and I are completely vaccinated, [and] one of my colleagues and his wife are completely vaccinated, so we all had dinner together, ”Parker added. “This is totally acceptable once you are completely vaccinated.”
And in terms of herd immunity, Buttenheim said: “The sooner we can get 70% or 80% coverage in the country, the sooner we can get back to life – and if that’s important to you. , keep vulnerable people safe. “
An altruistic reason to get vaccinated as soon as the chance is available is to set a visible example for others, especially if you are in a group facing high levels of hesitation or potential delay in the vaccine, Buttenheim added.
“We are really social creatures and we certainly look around our social environment to get clues about what to do,” she said.
Three vaccines, “all great”
Experts have also expressed concern that Americans are giving up the vaccine they are being offered first and are waiting for a “more effective” option – the result of a different number of efficacy of the topline vaccine that scientists say it should not be compared directly.
Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines boast an efficacy rate of approximately 95%, but their studies were conducted before the growing concern about coronavirus variants, against which the effective vector-based viral vaccine was tested at 66%. of J&J. The overall efficacy figure of J&J also hides the 72% vaccine efficacy in the US and the 85% efficacy against severe diseases.
While the two mRNA-based vaccines are different from the J&J vaccine in several key ways, all three are effective in preventing severe illness, hospitalization and death – the measures that matter most, according to public health experts.
“The information I give [people] it’s essentially, no matter what vaccine you get, it prevents hospitalization and death – so the best will be the one I can get to first, ”Lopez said.
Buttenheim agreed. “We just want people to get the vaccine they are offered,” she said. “Everyone is wonderful.”
Read also: The Americans are debating what COVID-19 vaccine they want, but Fauci says take what you have