Tag: Hesitancy

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Vaccine hesitancy in Asia which lags U.S., Europe as instances surge

Government confident of reaching vaccine target

A doctor walks past the banner announcing a Covid-19 vaccination campaign in Hyderabad, India on May 28, 2021.

Noah Seelam | AFP | Getty Images

SINGAPORE – Asia Pacific is struggling to vaccinate its population as Covid-19 infections are increasing rapidly in many places in the region, some at record levels.

Many Asian governments have problems securing vaccines, said Benjamin Cowling, a professor at the University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health. Also, early successes in containing the coronavirus in Asia may have led people to view vaccination with less urgency, he added.

“If we have had very few infections in the past year, the idea is that Covid is not such a risk and we could go to zero (cases) if we just did the face mask and social distancing – no rush to vaccinate. Hesitation was one big problem, ”Cowling, who heads the school’s epidemiology and biostatistics department, told CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia on Tuesday.

In short, Asia has gone from being a flagship of containment successes to being a laggard when it comes to adopting vaccinations.

The region is now experiencing a renewed increase in infections.

India, Nepal, Malaysia, Japan and Taiwan are among those who broke records in the number of daily cases in the past month – prompting authorities to impose new restrictions in an attempt to contain the cases.

Asia’s Covid vaccination

Countries in the Asia-Pacific region have combined about 23.8 doses of Covid vaccine per 100 people, according to CNBC analysis of data compiled by the June 1 stats website Our World in Data.

That’s well below the roughly 61.4 doses per 100 people in North America and the 48.5 doses per 100 people in Europe, the data showed. Africa is the region with the slowest vaccination campaign, and data suggests that only 2.5 doses were given for every 100 people.

Economists at French bank Natixis have been tracking vaccine shipments and vaccination progress in the Asia-Pacific region. They said in a press release last month that while supply shortages have been a major contributor to slow vaccination in the region, few economies are currently facing this problem.

The economists named Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam as “those who have not yet received the necessary doses for mass vaccination”.

“Public demand remains weak, however,” said the Natixis report. “Skepticism about the newly developed vaccines seems to be a common reason for reluctance around the world. But it is even more so in Asia, where more effective containment has resulted in less urgency.”

Leader and straggler

In the Asia-Pacific region, Mongolia and Singapore lead the way with around 97 and 69 total vaccinations per 100 inhabitants, respectively, according to Our World in Data.

The data showed that many border and emerging countries such as Vietnam and Afghanistan are lagging behind.

According to a report by research firm Fitch Solutions, several frontier and emerging markets in Asia are relying on COVAX – a global vaccine exchange initiative – for Covid vaccines.

But supplies to COVAX are now at risk because India has restricted exports of vaccines, the report said. Located in India is the vaccine maker Serum Institute India, which is a key supplier of Covid doses for the initiative.

If Indian exports do not resume soon, many low- and low- and middle-income countries that rely on COVAX will experience “further delays” in their vaccination progress, warned Fitch solutions.

Recovery in Asia vs. West

Based on current vaccination rates, Natixis economists predict that this year only Singapore and mainland China will be able to vaccinate 70% of their respective countries’ populations – a similar schedule to the US and UK

This is the threshold that some medical experts say is necessary to achieve “herd immunity” when the virus stops being transmitted quickly because most people are immune from vaccination or after infection.

Asian economies still struggling for vaccine deliveries may not hit that threshold until 2025 or beyond, the economists said.

Slow advances in vaccination will hit some Asian economies harder than others, Natixis economists said. They said the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia had the biggest Urgency of vaccination due to lackluster handling of the pandemic or a huge economic burden from tourism.

“In short, Asia has gone from being a flagship of containment successes to being a laggard in vaccination adoption,” said Natixis, adding that social distancing and cross-border restrictions will remain in place in the region longer compared to the west.

“The broader economic reopening in the West, based on a much faster roll-out of vaccines, particularly for the US and increasingly also for the EU, could exacerbate divergence and make Asia more vulnerable and less favorable to investment on its path to recovery. “

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White Home to make use of celebrities, athletes in advert marketing campaign to fight Covid vaccine hesitancy

White House to use celebrities, athletes in ad campaign to combat Covid vaccine hesitancy

In this screenshot Eva Longoria speaks at the 26th Annual Critics Choice Awards on March 07, 2021.

Getty Images

The Biden government is launching a massive campaign Thursday to convince more Americans to take the Covid-19 vaccines, government officials told NBC News.

The campaign, titled “We Can Do This: Live,” targets young people through social media and includes virtual events where celebrities and athletes answer Americans’ questions about the vaccines, according to NBC News.

Famous people to take part in the campaign include actress Eva Longoria, Billionaire owner Mark Cuban of Dallas Mavericks, Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest, co-hosts of “Live with Kelly and Ryan,” and people from NASCAR , the NBA and WNBA, according to NBC News.

According to a detailed publication of the campaign received from NBC News, the goal is to reach Americans, especially young people, “right in the places where they already consume content online, including social media, podcasts, YouTube and more”.

The government’s efforts come because polls suggest a significant proportion of Americans are likely to refuse to fire the shots, potentially stifling the nation’s recovery from the pandemic that killed at least 569,405 Americans in just over a year.

Some young people appear to be resistant to vaccinations. A recent survey by STAT News-Harris found that 21% of Generation Z or young adults ages 18 to 24 said they wouldn’t get the Covid vaccine and another 34% said they would “wait a while.” and see “before being vaccinated.

In addition, some doctors said some of their patients had become skeptical of the vaccines after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration asked states last week to stop distributing Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine after six rare ones , but potentially to temporarily discontinue cases. Fatal bleeding disorders have been reported.

Many of former President Donald Trump’s supporters are also strongly against taking the vaccine, say public health and policy experts, which worries U.S. health officials who hope enough people will be vaccinated for the country to receive herd immunity to the virus .

The Chief Medical Officer of the White House, Dr. Anthony Fauci previously said 75% to 85% of the US population would need to be vaccinated to create an “umbrella” of immunity that will prevent the virus from spreading.

Vaccine supplies are already exceeding demand in some regions of the US as local health authorities struggle to get people to vaccinate.

As of Wednesday, more than 134 million Americans, or 40% of the total US population, had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to the CDC. Around 87.5 million Americans, or 26.4% of the total US population, are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

According to the CDC, the United States reported an average of 3 million shots per day over the past week, a slight decrease from 3.4 million reported shots per day on April 13.

Fauci said Monday that there would be a “court press” to get people vaccinated.

“It is very worrying that people are politically unwilling to be vaccinated,” Fauci said Monday on CBS This Morning. “I find this really extraordinary because they say you are encroaching on our freedoms by asking us to wear masks and doing restrictions that affect public health problems. The easiest way to overcome this is to yourself get vaccinated. “

–CNBCs Nate Rattner and Rich Mendez contributed to this report.

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Panicked sufferers name medical doctors as Covid vaccine hesitancy rises with J&J blood clot challenge

Panicked patients call doctors as Covid vaccine hesitancy rises with J&J blood clot issue

More Americans are likely to refuse to receive the Covid-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson after U.S. health officials said six women developed a rare bleeding disorder with one dead and another in critical condition, experts said for public health and vaccines using CNBC on Tuesday.

The Food and Drug Administration asked states early Tuesday to temporarily stop using J & J’s single-shot vaccine “out of caution” after six women aged 18 to 48 out of the roughly 6.9 million people who received the shot developed blood. A coagulation disorder known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, or CVST.

All women developed the condition that occurs when a blood clot forms in the venous sinuses of the brain that prevents blood from flowing back to the heart within about two weeks of receiving the shot from the brain, health officials told reporters on a phone call .

“People who have recently received the vaccine in the past few weeks should be aware if they are looking for symptoms,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the deputy chief director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during a press conference on Tuesday. “If you have received the vaccine and have severe headache, stomach pain, leg pain, or shortness of breath, you should contact your doctor and see a doctor.”

Shortly after the FDA issued the warning, more than a dozen states, as well as some pharmacies, took steps to stop vaccination with J & J’s vaccine. Some replaced scheduled appointments with either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. Some doctors say they are already taking calls from worried patients.

People were already skeptical of vaccines before the coronavirus emerged as a new pathogen in China in December 2019, infecting more than 31.2 million Americans and killing at least 562,718 people in just over a year. Warning from U.S. health officials to states is likely to be even more reluctant to take J & J’s shot and the other vaccines, and threatens to hold back the nation’s recovery from the pandemic, health experts told CNBC.

“Unfortunately, this is likely to exacerbate those who are a little hesitant about getting a vaccine,” said Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist who served on several drug data and safety oversight panels. “Senior public health officials need to continue to be open, honest, transparent, and most importantly, contextualize that this is a low risk.”

According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical officer, the goal is to vaccinate between 70% and 85% of the US population – or about 232 to 281 million people – to achieve herd immunity and suppress the pandemic.

To date, more than 120 million Americans, or 36% of the total US population, have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to the CDC. Around 74 million Americans, or 22% of the total US population, are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Children under the age of 16 are not yet eligible to shoot in the United States, and some adults are likely to refuse to get a vaccine.

“This puts a wrench in the plans. It will slow down the rollout,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kahn, director of the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University. “People will say, ‘I don’t want this, I want one of the others who don’t have this problem,’ even if it’s an extremely rare occurrence.”

Some Americans, especially in black, Hispanic, and rural communities, have already been reluctant to get the J&J vaccine, especially because they found it to be worse than Pfizer and Moderna’s. The highly effective J&J shot, especially against serious illnesses, showed 72% effectiveness in protecting against Covid in the US about a month after inoculation. This is comparable to the effectiveness of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines with two doses of around 95%.

Single-dose vaccines like J & Js were critical to “getting into communities where a two-dose regimen was impractical or even possible,” Kahn said. US health officials used J & J’s vaccine primarily to reach poorer urban and rural areas where residents could not easily get to a vaccination clinic or did not have reliable internet access.

“These communities are also the hardest hit by Covid,” said Kahn. “Interrupting Use of J & J. [is] one stroke to do that effectively and quickly. “

Dr. Stephen Schrantz, who was part of the team leading a J&J vaccine study at the University of Chicago Medicine, said he already had patients who didn’t want the J&J vaccine and said the news would give them more evidence give to say, “See, I told you.”

“I suspect that vaccine adoption and uptake will slow down, there will be a move away from the J&J vaccine even if the CDC and FDA conclude that there is no causal link,” he said. “And as the wearing of masks wears off, there may be more cases like we have in Michigan.”

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who sits on Pfizer’s board of directors, predicted the move will fuel “the reluctance” of some people to get a Covid vaccine.

“Even if there is no causal link, even if it is extremely rare, we will see that the whole conversation is now ignited on social media,” he told CNBC in an interview.

Dr. Purvi Parikh, an infectious disease allergy and immunology specialist at NYU Langone Health, described the FDA warning Tuesday as a “double-edged sword” and said it would likely raise concerns for already reluctant Americans. She also said she had already received “panic calls” from her own patients about the J&J vaccine.

“But if anything, I would like to repeat again: This only gives me more confidence in our system because these security checks work. Hopefully it will give some people peace of mind,” she added on “Squawk on the Street”. “” “Again, to look at the bigger picture, the benefits still far outweigh the risks of this vaccination.”

Dr. Archana Chatterjee, pediatric infectious disease specialist and member of the FDA’s Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products, echoed Parikh’s remark. She added that there is nothing “unusual” in the way US health officials are addressing the problem.

“This is a normal procedure that occurs,” she said.

“But of course whenever a serious adverse event is reported about a vaccine that raises public concern,” she added. “If you talk about vaccine trust or vaccine reluctance, could it have an impact? It certainly is possible.”

Dr. Paul Offit, another member of the Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Allied Biological Products, hopes Americans will be “rational” about the problem, adding that cases of blood clots seem extremely rare. He noted that convincing people in hard-to-reach communities could be a challenge.

“It should be reassuring to the people that the officials are still looking [at the vaccine], even for rare side effects, “he said.

– CNBC’s Kevin Stankiewicz contributed to this article.

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Biden Administration Proclaims Advert Marketing campaign to Fight Vaccine Hesitancy

Biden Administration Announces Ad Campaign to Combat Vaccine Hesitancy

WASHINGTON – The Biden government announced Thursday morning an ambitious publicity campaign to encourage as many Americans as possible to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The campaign, with advertisements in English and Spanish that will air on network television and cable channels across the country and online throughout April, comes as the administration rapidly expands access to coronavirus vaccines.

President Biden announced a new goal last week of giving 200 million doses by his 100th day in office, doubling his original goal of 100 million bullets in the arms of Americans when he was in office. And last month, in an address to the nation, he announced a goal of vaccine qualification for all adults in the United States by May 1. Governors and public health officials in more than 40 states have said they will meet or exceed this deadline.

However, deep skepticism about the vaccine remains a problem, especially among blacks, Latinos, Republicans, and white evangelicals. Administration officials believe that if many Americans continue to refuse to be vaccinated, supply will soon exceed demand. And widespread resistance to vaccinations could hinder returns to more normal lifestyles as the virus continues to spread.

Two hundred and seventy-five organizations will participate in the government’s new public awareness boost – including NASCAR, the Catholic Health Association of the United States, and the North American Meat Institute – aimed at communities where vaccine reluctance remains high. Organizations include many Catholic and Evangelical groups that are expected to help address religious concerns about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which uses abortion-derived fetal cell lines.

The group is collectively known as the Covid-19 Community Corps, administrative officials said, and the participating organizations can reach millions of Americans who trust these individual groups.

A new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation this week found that the number of black adults ready to be vaccinated has increased significantly since February. Overall, 13 percent of respondents said they would “definitely not” receive a vaccine. Among Republicans and White Evangelical Christians, nearly 30 percent of each group said they would “definitely not” get a shot.

Updated

April 1, 2021, 7:26 a.m. ET

Government officials said their research showed that vaccine news from medical professionals and community leaders, rather than celebrities or the president, was often more convincing.

“We’re not always the best messengers,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last month when speaking about the hesitation of the vaccine among conservatives.

The full list of participating organizations includes health professionals, scientists, community organizations, religious leaders, corporations, rural interest groups, civil rights organizations, sports leagues, and athletes. The Department of Health and Human Services is also helping to educate people about vaccines by posting “Let’s Get Vacceted” frames for Facebook users to add to their profile photos.

Part of the challenge of convincing skeptical Americans is the personal and varied reasons behind the vaccine’s hesitation.

“I have a couple of bags that cite religious reasons for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine,” said Shirley Bloomfield, executive director of NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association, which told the White House what she heard from members of her group . “There are a lot of pockets that people have already had Covid in and feel like, ‘Well, we’ve all got it, so we’re not really under pressure.'”

The tone of the ads is hopeful and is intended as a call to action. Everyone can help end the pandemic by getting vaccinated.

To further emphasize this point, the Department of Health and Human Services has separately purchased a multimillion-dollar advertisement in black and Spanish language media and outlets reaching Asian-American and tribal communities to reaffirm the message about safety and effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines.

The government announced last week that it is allocating nearly $ 10 billion to improve access to vaccines and confidence in minority communities hardest hit by the pandemic.

Biden officials have worked with many of the groups involved in the Covid-19 Community Corps since the presidential change, but the formal launch of an advertising campaign had to wait until vaccine supplies were at a level where people could be quick to those provided to them Information reacts.

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As Biden Confronts Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy, Republicans Are a Explicit Problem

As Biden Confronts Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy, Republicans Are a Particular Challenge

WASHINGTON – When President Biden urges that as many Americans as possible be vaccinated, many Republicans have deep skepticism about convincing a group that challenges him in particular.

While there has been some resistance to vaccination against the coronavirus from a number of groups, including African Americans and anti-vaccine activists, polls suggest that opinions on the part of the party are severely disrupted.

A third of Republicans in a poll by CBS News said they would not get the vaccine – compared to 10 percent of Democrats – and another 20 percent of Republicans said they weren’t sure. Other surveys have found similar trends.

As the Biden administration prepares television and internet commercials and other efforts to promote vaccination, the challenge for the White House is compounded by the perception of former President Donald J. Trump’s stance on the matter. Although Mr Trump was vaccinated before leaving office and last month urged Conservatives to get vaccinated, many of his supporters appear not to be, and he has not played a prominent role in promoting vaccination.

When asked when asked at the White House on Monday, Mr Biden said Mr Trump’s help in promoting vaccination was less important than bringing trusted community figures on board.

“I have discussed it with my team and they say that what has more impact than anything Trump would say to the MAGA people is what the local doctor, the local preacher, the local people in the church are saying “Biden said, referring to Mr. Trump’s supporters and the campaign slogan” Make America Great Again “. Until everyone is vaccinated, Americans should keep wearing masks, Biden added.

Widespread resistance to vaccination, if not overcome, could prevent the United States from reaching the point where the virus can no longer easily spread and cut back efforts to get the economy going again and the To lead people back to a more normal life. While the problem so far has been access to relatively scarce vaccine supplies, government officials soon anticipate the possibility that supply will exceed demand if many Americans hesitate.

However, many conservative and rural voters continue to point to a variety of concerns. Some conservatives have religious concerns about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which uses fetal cell lines derived from abortion.

Republicans often cite suspicion of the government as a reason not to get vaccinated, according to the CBS poll. They fear the vaccines were being made too quickly. And in some communities, so many people have already had the coronavirus that they believe they have developed herd immunity and don’t need the shots.

Other Trump supporters believe the Democrats exaggerated the toll of the pandemic to hurt the former president.

This poses a major challenge to a democratic government, the success of which depends on convincing Americans who did not vote for Mr Biden that the vaccines are safe, effective and necessary.

“We’re not always the best messengers,” said Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, last week.

This meant that a crucial part of the coronavirus response has been outsourced to the administration.

“It’s not an easy endeavor,” said John Bridgeland, founder and executive director of the Covid Collaborative, a non-partisan group of political and scientific leaders who work on vaccine education and meet regularly with the White House on vaccine hesitation.

“The good news is that the White House has been across all of these populations, including realizing that they’re not nicely positioned to reach out to conservatives,” he said. “That’s why they reach us and others.”

The governors have urged the Biden government on the need for clear communication about the vaccines.

White House officials said their research showed that improving access to the vaccines and buying in locally from doctors and pharmacists is the best way to get skeptical conservatives to sign up for a shot. They are planning a flash of commercials on television, radio and the internet to target problem areas: young people, colored people and conservatives, a clerk said.

While working to increase vaccine availability across the country, administrative officials also work with groups like the NTCA – the Rural Broadband Association and the National Farmers Union – to reach out to rural communities on their behalf.

Shirley Bloomfield, the association’s executive director, has worked with the White House to share what she hears from their local members who have deployed broadband lines in rural areas.

Updated

March 16, 2021, 9:07 a.m. ET

“We have worked to have them designated as essential workers at the federal level,” she said. “I didn’t know we had this problem until people came back and said that less than 30 percent of my team would take the shot.”

Ms. Bloomfield said the second gentleman’s office, Doug Emhoff, reached out to her directly to ask about her members and her views on the vaccines.

Mr. Trump got his vaccine secret before leaving office. In particular, he was not featured in a public announcement vaccinating all other former living presidents – Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter – and encouraging others to follow suit.

Mr Trump was not asked to attend like the others because at the time of filming during Mr Biden’s inauguration, he had not yet revealed that he had been vaccinated.

But behind the scenes there was a quiet effort to convince Mr. Trump to get involved. Joe Grogan, the former director of the White House Home Affairs Council under Mr Trump, has worked with the Covid Collaborative to address conservative reluctance to offer vaccines.

Mr Grogan has made calls about what the best message would be to persuade Mr Trump to get involved – one that inevitably underscores his desire for recognition for the vaccine development as part of Operation Warp Speed.

“As soon as we found out he was vaccinated, I reached out to Joe Grogan,” said Bridgeland, who helped organize the commercial with the former presidents. “We were thrilled to have him vaccinated and would like him to encourage his supporters to get the vaccine.”

A Trump adviser said the former president had not yet been formally approached to speak directly to his supporters.

“It would be very helpful if President Trump made a public announcement,” said Grogan. However, the Biden White House seems divided over how effective Mr Trump’s involvement would really be.

Although Mr Biden denied the need for Mr Trump’s help on Monday, his chief medical advisor, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, on Sunday on Fox News, said it would “make all the difference in the world” if the former president encouraged his followers to get vaccinated. And Andy Slavitt, a senior White House pandemic advisor, said Sunday, “This is an effort Republicans should know that started before we got here and we are making it.”

Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist, said the best way for the White House to take politics out of the issue.

What you need to know about the vaccine rollout

“That means Joe Biden should acknowledge what Donald Trump did to make the vaccine a reality,” Luntz said. He has worked with the de Beaumont Foundation, an organization focused on improving public health through politics, to encourage conservatives to get vaccinated.

“I don’t think the Trump administration understood the role of communication,” Luntz said, “and I don’t think the Biden administration understands what it means to communicate with Trump voters.”

On Saturday, Mr. Luntz hosted a focus group of about 20 Conservatives to hear from Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor; and several Republican members of Congress.

Some of the conservatives on the call initially described the vaccines as “rushed” and “experimental” and the coronavirus as “opportunistic” and “government manipulation”. More than half of the callers said their fear of vaccination was greater than their fear of the virus.

But almost all of the participants said they had a more positive opinion about the vaccines after Dr. Frieden had given them five facts about the virus, including: “The more we vaccinate, the faster we can grow the economy and get jobs.”

Mr. Christie emphasized how random the virus can be as it affects different people, including younger adults. Not only did he and Mr. Trump become seriously ill, but he also reminded the group that Hope Hicks, the 32-year-old former Trump adviser, was also very ill.

“She was away for a good 10 days and never had to go to the hospital, but called me and said this was the sickest she had ever been,” said Christie.

Right now, the White House is relying on the work of political opponents like Mr. Christie to sell the message for them. The only substitute within the Biden government that they consider effective among Conservatives is Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, a scientist and Evangelical Christian who stands in both religious and scientific communities.

In the past few weeks, Dr. Collins performed at the Christian Broadcasting Network’s 700 Club, a show popular with evangelical Christians and hosted by Pat Robertson for decades. Dr. Collins also plans to reach out to the National Association of Evangelicals, someone familiar with the planning.

Joshua DuBois, former head of the Office for Faith-Based Partnerships and Neighborhood Partnerships in the Obama White House, was impressed with the efforts of the Biden administration to ease vaccine hesitation.

He said Mr. Biden’s top advisors, such as Marcella Nunez-Smith and Cameron Webb, had asked the religious community to answer questions about the vaccines. The calls included black and Hispanic organizations, as well as white evangelicals.

Mr DuBois acknowledged that hesitation in minority communities was rooted in history. When coronavirus vaccines were launched last year, researchers tracked a surge in social media posts about the infamous Tuskegee study, in which health officials followed and did not treat African American men infected with syphilis.

“There is a history of distrust, but current devastation around us,” said DuBois, “and in response to that devastation, people are choosing to be vaccinated.”

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Why I Overcame My Vaccine Hesitancy

Why I Overcame My Vaccine Hesitancy

At the mass vaccination site I went to in Brooklyn, everyone I met was cheerful, patient, and reassuring, even the young woman who checked me in and couldn’t find me on her 3pm schedule. “Don’t worry,” she said soothingly, “you will get the vaccine.”

At the next window, a young man from Nigeria checked my ID and Medicare card and found out what had happened. Turns out I accidentally booked an appointment at 3am and didn’t know the website was open 24/7. Another “don’t worry,” and I went to see a young Florida technician who painlessly injected the Moderna vaccine into my left arm.

I then sat in a holding tent for 15 minutes to make sure I wouldn’t have any serious reactions. The next day I received a text: “Hello Jane, it’s time for your daily v-safe check-in” and a link to a CDC site that asked: How are you today? (Good, fair, bad); Did you have a fever today or did you have a fever? (Yes No); followed by symptom testing, first at the injection site for pain, redness, swelling or itching and then generally for chills, headache, joint pain, muscle or body aches, tiredness or exhaustion, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and rash or any other symptoms that I wanted to report.

Finally, I was asked some general health effects related to my ability to work and carry out my normal daily activities and whether I needed to see a doctor. I received the same text at the same time every day for more than a week and also received a link when I wanted to submit a report to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.

The second dose, given 34 days later, went even more smoothly. By then I had spoken to dozens of other people of different ages who had both taken recordings. Only two reported bad reactions – fever, nausea, extreme fatigue – that lasted a day or two. I was prepared for the worst, but it never happened. My arm, shoulder, and neck hurt the first night, but most of the pain was gone by the next morning. Although my son was on call if I couldn’t walk my dog, his help was not needed. I was even able to swim that afternoon.

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Vaccine Hesitancy in Most cancers Sufferers

Vaccine Hesitancy in Cancer Patients

Ideally, cancer patients who want the shot could get it in their cancer centers rather than a mass distribution location. But a bumpy rollout and age restrictions have frustrated many people with cancer. If the shot is offered, Dr. Brawley still has his patients in active therapy and those in follow-up care. Certainly, they may not react as strongly as someone with an intact immune system. They do receive some protection, however, and are not harmed, as Moderna and Pfizer’s current vaccines are not made from live viruses (like measles, rubella, mumps, and smallpox were). Live virus vaccines must be avoided by severely immunocompromised individuals.

Updated

Apr. 25, 2021, 9:04 p.m. ET

Moderna and Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccines, explains Dr. Brawley, are made from messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) using a new technology. Its genetic material causes the vaccinated person to produce the same proteins that are found in the spikes of the novel coronavirus.

“The vaccinated person’s immune system then recognizes these proteins as foreign and produces antibodies against them,” said Dr. Brawley. “Another immune cell, a dendritic cell, also records the proteins as foreign.”

Dr. William Nelson, director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, agreed that “the worst that can happen to cancer patients vaccinated with the coronavirus vaccine” is “a bad reaction.” The worst reactions are likely to occur in people dealing with B-cell lymphoma and multiple myeloma, he explained, since these therapies often use drugs that target antibody-producing cells in the body. “For people undergoing a bone marrow transplant,” advised Dr. Nelson, vaccinations should likely be scheduled three to six months after the transplant to ensure immune regeneration has occurred.

As important as the vaccines are, Dr. Nelson urged people with cancer as well as their families and friends to “remain vigilant when it comes to wearing masks, social distancing, hand washing, etc.” Because cancer patients often have low white blood cell counts, their symptoms – fever, muscle pain, headache, dry cough – cannot be distinguished from those of Covid-19. “Now these patients must also be quickly tested for the coronavirus and isolated in a suitable facility so that their intravenous antibiotics can be infused.”

When the health authorities in my state of Indiana announced that they would be vaccinating people over 70, I had no problem signing up for an appointment online. When I took my first shot in a small medical facility, it was full of people buoyed by high hopes for widespread, so-called herd immunity. My own optimism has been overshadowed by regular news this winter of maskless receptions, rallies, protests, parties, and raves, as well as personal conversations with people who fear vaccinations in general.

As Eula Biss explained in her brilliant prepandemic book On Immunity, fear of the government, the medical establishment, and public interference with the private establishment can stifle the collective trust that attaining immunity requires. Because cancer patients are often affected by anxiety, they may be particularly prone to these types of anxieties.