Just Get the Damn Vaccine
Have you gotten your COVID vaccine yet? I ask this of every patient I triage in the emergency department. I added the “yet” qualifier at the end to emphasize that it’s recommended. Sneaky, I know. We’re supposed to be screening for blood clots in patients who received a Johnson & Johnson vaccine (despite there being an extremely low risk for this). To date, I have personally had zero patients who were positive for this screening.
Besides being a waste of time (in my opinion), this screening question offered me an insight to the three categories of peoples’ thoughts. A lot of the time, they answer, “hell no, I’m not getting that!” Other times, it’s “oh yes, I’m fully vaccinated. Do you need to see my card?” As I’m sure you could tell, those are the first two categories of people: the pro-vaccine and the anti-science.
But there’s a third category. Sometimes, a patient will answer “uhhhh…no…not yet……” or “no, I’m not sure if I want that.” Often, I can almost feel their regret about not getting the vaccine now that they’re sick in the hospital. I thought about naming this category “the Regretfuls.”
As a nurse, I can’t just say something insulting and jab them with the vaccine against their will — it’s illegal, unethical, and more importantly, it doesn’t go over well with HR 🙃. So, to deal with my frustration of their ignorance, I made them explain themselves to me. I’d ask, “if you don’t mind, why don’t you want the vaccine?” I made sure to sound professional, and not let the sarcasm come out. I expected to be met with anger or some baseless misinformation.
But instead, I was often met with genuine concerns, mostly based on their perceived lack of evidence, or concerns about long-term effects. Not at all what I expected. I was used to being cursed out for something as petty as not bringing a sandwich fast enough, so it didn’t occur to me to expect any thought-provoking answers. It made me feel bad about being so hypercritical of them.
I remembered that my influence as a nurse can be used to change people’s lives — I realized this category of people can be persuaded. Instilling science-based logic into a stranger’s mind takes seconds. Offering a piece of advice that sticks with them is worthwhile. These “on the fence” patients are what I eventually came to name “the Skeptics.” With a few minutes of a non-judgmental inquiry and a factual conversation, the Skeptics can be persuaded.
I’m happy to announce that I graduated this past Friday with my Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree! It’s weird that with all we are expected to do as RNs, and the huge amount of knowledge I have obtained, that I was only required to have an Associate degree. Regardless, I earned the bachelor’s degree, and I’m proud of it.
During the BSN program, I had to do a lot of work with research articles. I had to find peer-reviewed journal articles, critique them, and then properly use and cite them in my assignments. So, when I discovered that the Skeptics had valuable concerns, I decided to conduct my own mini-research project.
I asked a simple question on social media: “are you against the COVID vaccine? Post your rationale. No arguing: I just want to know why some people are making that decision.” Thanks to the quality of my online community, the discussion was productive, with one person commenting, “I really appreciate how this post didn’t turn into a huge debate. High five for having decent friends.” 🖐
The post was only active with comments for a few hours, but for that short period, I was able to gather some data. There were two categories of responses: concerns for evidence, and concerns for governmental mandates. To be clear, only one of those categories has to do with the vaccine itself. Let’s dive in.
Mandating Vaccines
One person (who frequently engages in friendly debates with me) cited the age-old “slippery slope” argument. “Why stop at the vaccine?” he sarcastically pondered, “why not mandate vehicles cannot travel faster than 45 mph to decrease traffic fatalities? If it about health then let’s mandate the shit outta all the risks.” He went on to sarcastically suggest that we should crack down on businesses which cater to non-compliant diabetics or morbidly obese people in the name of public health.
Ok, yeah, I get it, mandating that people get an injection to keep their jobs or go to concerts could be the next step in allowing the government even more power. But we already do that. To be a nurse, I had to provide my health records to prove that I had a whole bunch of vaccinations. We require our military to do the same — just like was required of this person when he himself was in the military.
Did you know that if you contract tuberculosis today, you must comply with the government-recommended treatment protocols? The government would routinely send people to your home to ensure that you are following their quarantine and taking their approved medications. If you fail to comply, or refuse, they can get a court order to transport you against your will to their facility so that you can be forced to receive their treatment. That already exists. Today. In the USA. Why? Because we don’t want people walking around with TB infecting us all! Have you ever been worried about a person with TB getting on a flight with you? Probably not. Why? Because we have infection control measures.
Now, I’m not suggesting that I think those same measures should be imposed on people with COVID, nor am I saying that I completely agree with the government’s ability to take those actions for people with TB. But what I am saying, is that mandating people to get the COVID vaccine in order to go out into crowds is not a novel idea. It’s not a slippery slope if that’s already where we are. The slope is the same, if you will.
Someone else cited concerns with government mandates because he just doesn’t want to be told what to do. Although, a few sentences later, he pivoted, “but thinking back to the days when the world came to a stop and the impact it had on everyone’s lives. All the hardships that people endured, all the consequences of a stopped economy, all the lives lost, all the businesses that didn’t make it, if I can help prevent that again by getting a free shot at Walgreens then why the fuck not, stick me.”
I think he said it best: it’s annoying that we have to get a shot, but it’s probably worth it.
Evidence and Vaccine Safety
The reason that most people gave for vaccine hesitation was simple: they don’t believe there is enough evidence to either prove the vaccine is effective or that it is safe. One person said she was “waiting a few years for the longer term evidence,” and said that vaccinated people “are still contagious As far as we know.” She added, “I really just wanted to feel comfortable with it.” I think that’s the bottom line. People hear conflicting information, and they want to be comfortable with their decision. So, as a person with a three-day-old science degree, I think it’s my responsibility to help.
Generally, the public trusts scientists. We trust that our vehicles are made to high standards, we trust that our food won’t get us sick. We trust that our body wash and eye cream won’t give us cancer. We don’t conduct primary studies on the way our salami is cured before we eat it; we trust that our government agencies will protect us. No regular people are conducting science experiments on their tap water to make sure there aren’t parasites or bacteria. We are a science-trusting society.
And up until relatively recently, we trusted vaccines. Have you seen a person with polio? Mumps? Smallpox? Tetanus? No. You haven’t. Because of vaccines.
So why is there now a hesitation to receive vaccinations but not antibiotics? Or aspirin? Is it really as simple as politics?
So here it is, here’s the science, as best as I can understand it, in the best way I can explain it. This is my reply to the concerns for safety and perceived lack of evidence. It’s only one paragraph of easy-to-read science, just hear me out. Also, do your own research — don’t just take my word for it.
The mRNA vaccines contain a piece of genetic coding of a virus that is used as an identifier, but it does not actually contain the entire virus. Because of this, it’s impossible to contract the virus from the vaccine. That piece of genetic code is introduced to your body as a danger. At this point, your body will “remember” and destroy a virus with this same code in the future. If the virus gets in your body, your immune system will recognize the code and destroy the virus. The mRNA vaccine degrades itself and leaves no trace behind.
If you understand that, you can understand how you can still have symptoms after getting the vaccine. For example, if you were exposed to COVID before you got the vaccine, you could have symptoms of COVID before the vaccine “kicks in.” Or, you could have mild symptoms of an infection while your body is fighting off the virus. That’s the reason why people report mild symptoms after receiving the second vaccine; your body recognizes the genetic code and activates an immune response. This does not mean you actually got COVID, though.
There have also been reports that fully vaccinated people can still spread the virus. That’s simple to explain, also. The vaccine works by telling your immune system to be on the lookout for the virus in your bloodstream. However, it does not prevent the virus from colonizing on your skin or in your throat. It can harbor there, and be ejected when you cough, but it shouldn’t get you sick. So, vaccinated people can still spread the virus, which is why masks are still recommended to slow the spread.
It’s really not that complicated. Get vaccinated to protect yourself, keep wearing a mask to protect others.
Other people say the vaccine was rushed and that makes it seem unsafe. Sure, I get that. However, the science behind mRNA vaccines have been studied for two decades. The vaccine was developed in less than a week after the genetic code was identified. That was possible because of how the vaccine works. It’s not that it was rushed, it’s that scientists already knew how to do it; plugging in the COVID-specific identifier wasn’t that hard.
The reason the vaccine didn’t come even quicker was because they did testing just to make sure it was safe — in reality, we could have had a vaccine within a month of first finding COVID if they didn’t test it as much as they did. The testing and production time slowed the process, but the actual vaccine was produced within a week or two. And, as of today, one of the vaccines earned full FDA approval. It’s truly amazing.
So, when the general public relies on social media or news sources with political agendas for their health information, they can make their health decisions based on misinformation. When healthcare providers say things like “well, there’s not enough evidence,” they’re casting doubt on people who spent their careers working on these things, and they’re not using their evidence-based education to bother to understand what they’re talking about.
We have to be better than this. As healthcare providers, we need to remember our science backgrounds — we have to be better stewards of information. It’s our responsibility to convey facts and persuade people to get vaccinated.
Since I’ve been pestering strangers in triage (and now online), I’ve found that at least a few people have seemed persuaded. At least a handful of patients have said they would get the vaccine based on my conversation with them. As I said before, I think people just want to be reassured that they’re doing the right thing. We got into healthcare to help people; we should be positive influences by simply explaining things.
Hopefully I can persuade at least some people to protect themselves from getting the 2019 plague. To me, that’s worth it. Or maybe they just listen to me to get a quicker sandwich. Whatever, I tried. That’s all any of us can do, anyway. Now, go forth and educate. 👍
Note: included social media quotes were pasted exactly; please excuse typos — the authors did not realize I was going to include their quotes anonymously in this article, or I’m sure they would have double-checked their responses.
Also: don’t use this article as evidence or practice advice. Go to official sources and do your own research. Use your facility’s approved teaching resources. It’s dumb that I’d have to even say this.
David I. Mancini is a Registered Nurse and a Licensed Paramedic. He’s a tech enthusiast, world traveler, and an eclectic eater. www.davidmancini.xyz
