Options for vaccine talk
How to address the elephant in the room with your family
Since many are likely gathering for the holidays, now may be a great time to talk to family and friends about getting the vaccine. To be honest, we really don’t have many options when it comes to fighting COVID-19 besides preventing serious infection leading to hospitalization or death via the vaccine. While this has been a good enough reason for 61.% of the population in the USA (or 203 million), there are still too many people who are not convinced.
So us health care providers have a few techniques we use when discussing tricky or sensitive topics. That’s what the below infographic explains. My co-chair, our team, and I at the New York Academy of Medicine, Advocacy in Medicine committee created this infographic for people to talk to those who are worried about getting the vaccine.
Conversations are what we need in public health, health care, and life. We need conversations that turn into action. We need to reduce misinformation and share insights that help people make thoughtful, not rash decisions. We want to extend life, and make sure people have opportunities. That’s what the vaccine is now. More opportunities for people to connect, live, and be together. You can also throw in to the conversation with family members that the COVID-19 vaccine was found to reduce depression and anxiety symptoms which I wrote about here.
Steps on discussing the vaccine*:
1. Ask open ended questions like:
What’s stopping you from getting the vaccine? What’s your biggest concern?
2. Share facts on what the person with vaccine concerns has said:
I know getting the vaccine seems scary, I felt safe getting it because my primary care physician/dentist/ therapist/teacher/mentor/ coach/sister have gotten the vaccine.
I’m hearing your concern on having another thing in your body, the thing is, this prevents us from getting seriously sick or dying. Our body needs this to fight deadly infection.
3. Double sided reflection:
The vaccine is confusing, it’s strange that it was made so fast, but that’s because large groups of scientists worked on this sole project for many months. Plus getting COVID-19 and being in the hospital is much worse.
4. Sharing more information, with permission:
I know some other things about the vaccine that I think might help. Can I share them with you?
5. Personalized education and risk analysis:
Someone who is 21 — We are told that you being a young, healthy person will likely not die from COVID-19, but grandma is at risk from dying from the disease.
Someone who is 65 — Since you are older, it is harder to overcome serious illness, remember what it was like when you had the flu [insert other illness] 5 years ago?
6. Compassion:
Lead with thoughtfulness and understanding. People want to be heard even when they are confused, worried, angry. Coming to a middle ground and addressing mis-information can lead to helpful conversations.
*this can also be applied for discussing the booster!
We all have a part to play with the pandemic. As an FYI, leading scientists are saying this wave of omicron is likely to cause the virus to be endemic. That means we are going to regularly find people with this disease, AKA: it’s not going away, we will continue to live with it.
Let’s think about all of our well-beings and do what we can by starting conversations that lead to healthy, safe lives.
The full infographic you can find here.
Happy Holidays friends.
