Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vog Obam. Here nobody likes to
Speaker 1: be sick, but it seems there are plenty of people
Speaker 1: who are willing to take a chance on a disease
Speaker 1: like COVID nineteen instead of getting a vaccine for it.
Speaker 1: Why is that and is this a new phenomenon? First,
Speaker 1: we have to understand the difference between vaccine hesitancy and
Speaker 1: anti vaccine activism, which is also called vaccine resistance. For
Speaker 1: the article this episode is based on How Stuff Works,
Speaker 1: spoke with Noel Brewer, PhD, a professor of health behavior
Speaker 1: at the University of North Carolina. He said vaccine hesitancy
Speaker 1: and anti vaccine activism are distinct and largely unrelated. Only
Speaker 1: around two percent of Americans will never get a vaccine,
Speaker 1: and among these hard refusers, only a handful attempt to
Speaker 1: recruit others to their views. By comparison, he says most
Speaker 1: people have at least some questions about vaccines, which is
Speaker 1: not a bad thing. Quote. Vaccine hesitancy is normal and
Speaker 1: healthy and should be encouraged. It's good to have questions,
Speaker 1: ask them and get high quality, trustworthy answers. The vocal
Speaker 1: anti vaccination movement is fairly recent and was really kicked
Speaker 1: into gear by a now discredited paper that appeared in
Speaker 1: the medical journal land Set, which falsely linked vaccines with autism. However,
Speaker 1: vaccine hesitancy is as old as vaccines themselves. How Stuff
Speaker 1: Works also spoke with Dr Katherine Edwards, the author of
Speaker 1: an American Academy of Pediatrics clinical report called Countering Vaccine Hesitancy.
Speaker 1: She said this has been going on for centuries and
Speaker 1: pointed to a cartoon published back in eighteen o two
Speaker 1: that depicts people growing cow like parts. This was in
Speaker 1: response to Edward Jenner pioneering the smallpox vaccine by using
Speaker 1: material from Alpas. A medical historian by the name of
Speaker 1: Elena Konis wrote in a article in The American Historian
Speaker 1: that the first small pax vaccine quote was met with
Speaker 1: enthusiasm but also dread. While many patients and physicians were
Speaker 1: eager to fend off one of that era's most feared diseases,
Speaker 1: many others balked at the prospect of contaminating their healthy
Speaker 1: bodies with disease matter from an animal. And then, when
Speaker 1: European countries began making small pax vaccines, mandatory in the
Speaker 1: early eighteen hundreds, She wrote that quote, societies of anti
Speaker 1: vaccinationists formed to protest what they saw as unequal treatment
Speaker 1: and undue infringement of individual liberty, but they didn't get
Speaker 1: much traction. There was also little protest against the polio vaccine,
Speaker 1: which was released in nineteen fifty four to wild enthusiasm
Speaker 1: in America. According to konis And, she wrote, parents so
Speaker 1: dreaded polio that they were quick to seek the vaccine
Speaker 1: for their children, and course of politics never became necessary.
Speaker 1: But as the decades went on, American parents were not
Speaker 1: so excited about vaccinations for measles, mumps, and other diseases.
Speaker 1: She noted, perhaps because people were used to living with
Speaker 1: these diseases. Health officials often had to make vaccinations mandatory
Speaker 1: for school registration. In order to get compliance. In a
Speaker 1: TV documentary called DPT Vaccine Roulette aired, featuring profiles of
Speaker 1: children whose mothers believed they were harmed by the vaccine
Speaker 1: for diphtheria, whooping cough, and tetanus. One of the first
Speaker 1: media pieces critical of vaccines then that now disproven Lancet
Speaker 1: article was published, sparking the anti vaxer movement. Fast forward,
Speaker 1: one and the new vaccination against COVID nineteen. One third
Speaker 1: of American adults are skeptical of getting it, according to
Speaker 1: the Associated Press, which is a pretty big problem for
Speaker 1: those trying to slow or stop up the pandemic. So
Speaker 1: why the hesitation, As we said, vaccine hesitancy is normal,
Speaker 1: even healthy. The reasons that it happens are threefold, according
Speaker 1: to Edwards. First, people may think that the disease isn't
Speaker 1: that bad and therefore that it doesn't need to be prevented.
Speaker 1: Edwards said, well, one of the issues that makes vaccine
Speaker 1: hesitancy more common prior to COVID is that many of
Speaker 1: the infectious diseases that parents dreaded for their children have
Speaker 1: been eliminated. And it's true severe chicken pox, mumps, and
Speaker 1: other once devastating illnesses are far rarer than they used
Speaker 1: to be thanks to vaccines. In terms of COVID, fear
Speaker 1: levels tend to run a wide range, with some people
Speaker 1: petrified of the virus and others totally unconcerned. Edwards explained,
Speaker 1: many people who don't want to get the vaccine are
Speaker 1: less afraid of getting COVID than those who do get
Speaker 1: the vaccine. Of particular, influence to this aspect of vaccine
Speaker 1: hesitancy is the media. So as Edwards a quote, some
Speaker 1: is very science based, others are not. An Internet site
Speaker 1: doesn't come with their rating of whether it's based on
Speaker 1: fact or not. Secondly, people are worried about the safety
Speaker 1: of the vaccine, and this is a big one for
Speaker 1: the COVID nineteen vaccine in particular, because it was developed
Speaker 1: so quickly, a lot of people think that it can't
Speaker 1: possibly be safe enough to use. In reality, scientists have
Speaker 1: been dealing with other coronaviruses like stars and mers for decades,
Speaker 1: which gave them a head start in the vaccine department. Thirdly,
Speaker 1: especially in American society, individualism is a big factor. Most
Speaker 1: people don't like to be told what to do, even
Speaker 1: if it is in their best interests. Edwards said that
Speaker 1: the line of thinking is, I quote, decide for myself
Speaker 1: if I get vaccinated, whether I wear masks, if I
Speaker 1: go out or quarantine. It's the sense of wanting to
Speaker 1: be an individual and having individual rights. Vaccination rates in
Speaker 1: general are still high in the United States, with n
Speaker 1: p five percent of children aged nineteen thirty five months
Speaker 1: fully vaccinated against measles. Moms and rubula. As of this
Speaker 1: is an all time high and the lowest rate between
Speaker 1: then In ninetour when the study that these numbers are
Speaker 1: from began, tracking rates occurred, not so coincidentally, in when
Speaker 1: the fraudulent Vaccine and Autism study was released. Vaccination rates
Speaker 1: were just eighty six percent that year. Still, there's not
Speaker 1: likely to be a magic cure to eliminate vaccine hesitancy
Speaker 1: anytime soon, Brewer said, we don't have much evidence that
Speaker 1: interventions to decrease hesitancy can increase vaccine uptake. Such interventions
Speaker 1: have been unreliably effective. That said, the best way to
Speaker 1: address hesitancy is to have a person talk with their
Speaker 1: healthcare provider. A provider recommendation is a single best motivator
Speaker 1: of vaccination. So let's say a friend mentions that they're
Speaker 1: scared to get a certain vaccine, whether for themselves or
Speaker 1: for a child. The worst thing you can do is
Speaker 1: tell them they're stupid or unilaterally discredit their concerns. Instead,
Speaker 1: find out why they're concerned. Is it due to possible
Speaker 1: side effects, fears about big pharma, potential long term problems.
Speaker 1: Validate those fears by listening and taking them seriously. Then
Speaker 1: suggest that they visit some reputable sites with you or
Speaker 1: on their own to get credible answers to their questions.
Speaker 1: A few that Edwards suggests are the CDC, the a
Speaker 1: a P, which is the American Academy of Pediatrics, and
Speaker 1: the National Institutes of Health vaccine information portals. She said,
Speaker 1: there's a wealth of information to look at that can
Speaker 1: answer questions, as long as it's a source that's linked
Speaker 1: to science. We would add that the American Academy of
Speaker 1: Family Physicians website also has an extensive explanation of COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen vaccine myths and facts. Finally, as Brewer says, suggest
Speaker 1: a frank conversation with their doctor to find out why
Speaker 1: the vaccine is recommended, if there are any risks, and
Speaker 1: what the side effects might be. Most of the time,
Speaker 1: a simple conversation with a knowledgeable person will allay fears.
Speaker 1: Edwards said, Certainly, I want my patients to understand what
Speaker 1: they're receiving and how it works. I also want them
Speaker 1: to know that they may experience side effects, but I
Speaker 1: can tell them about Today's episode is based on the
Speaker 1: article vaccine hesitancy is Nothing New on how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot Com, written by Leo Howit. Brain stuff It's production
Speaker 1: of by heart Radio in partnership with house to Works
Speaker 1: dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. For more
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