Listening to the concerns of people hesitant to get their vaccination shot is important, as is combating the many mistruths with facts about the shot, noted local and national health professionals during a recent COVID Workshop held by the Concerned Citizens Network of Alexandria (CCNA).
The Workshop is part of CCNA’s COVID Information Campaign (CIC). CCNA, as a longstanding trusted messenger in the community, is helping to spread the word through its Public Service Announcements (PSAs), VAX Facts, and Forums.
“We want to reach as many citizens as possible and encourage them to take their shot,”
said CCNA Program Manager Gina Andrews Bruce.
Detailing what COVID is doing nationally and locally were guest speakers Dr. Ian Moore, an infectious disease researcher at the National Institutes of Health, Natalie Talis from Alexandria’s Health Department and Professor Hank Van Putten, an anti-racism educator at the Peace and Justice Institute at Florida’s Valencia College.
Locally, a little better than a third of Alexandria residents (35.3%) are fully vaccinated and not quite half (46.8%) have had at least one vaccination shot.
Alexandria’s white residents are getting the vaccine more than their Black or Hispanic neighbors, she added, which the health department is looking to equalize through its mobile vans and outreach efforts. More women than men are getting the shot.
In addition to reaching the city’s minority population, another key focus for the health department, said Talis, is reaching the city’s 20-to-29 year olds whose infection rates and hospitalizations are rising – a national trend.
While Alexandria’s Health Department is distributing all three vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson), “the best vaccine is whichever one you get first,” said Talis.
“COVID didn’t cause these disparities but it has highlighted them, which makes Alexandria’s 5 year Community Health Improvement Plan all the more imperative,” she added.
There is a lot of misinformation about the vaccines out there, said Dr. Moore, who explained how the vaccines actually work. Like a key in a door, they block the key from opening that door, he said. “The vaccine educates your immune system.”
Dispelling many untruths, Dr. Moore said people are NOT injected with the virus when they get their vaccination shot.
For older adults, the side effects are the same as blood pressure medicine.
Some are concerned that the vaccine is like the Tuskegee experiment – a study conducted in the 1930s by the U.S. government, where syphilis was given to African American males without their consent or knowledge and worse left to die despite available treatment.
As a Tuskegee graduate, Dr. Moore said: “We can’t let the events of the past rule our judgment today.”
“Getting the vaccine provides 98% protection from hospitalization and death.” Those who’ve suffered through COVID have long lasting health effects, many of which are neurological.
Dr. Moore says while he is “very hopeful,” he’s also “very scared.”
The COVID variant in India, where 4,000 people are dying daily, is a double mutant. It has been identified in Michigan.
As of May 4th, there were 680 deaths a day in this country. Nearly 100% of those deaths were unvaccinated people. Nationally, the largest spread of COVID-19 is among 18 to 30 year olds who are the majority of those hospitalized.
“The need for the vaccine is NOW!” said Dr. Moore.
Prof. Van Putten has a very important reason for taking the vaccine: seeing his granddaughter.
As a youngster, he, along with millions of other children of the time, took the Measles, Mumps & Rubella vaccine as well as the Polio and Smallpox vaccines. Despite similar concerns as today, parents took their children to get these vaccines “to protect us from these diseases.”
Using a quote from Star Trek, he said: “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
“We still have a lot of work to do. Please take your shot.”
~Herve Aitken, CCNA Board Chair
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