Vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19: How many will stay on the fence? – Windsor Star

She points to the attention around the death of 13-year-old Evan Frustaglio, a healthy Toronto minor hockey player who died of H1N1 in 2009. The case galvanized once-skeptical parents, prompting Toronto to launch public vaccination clinics early.

Information alone is not sufficient, said Dub. Stories are important because they are authentic, they contain a narrative and they are from someone whom patients can identify with.

Social media has made it possible for vaccine skeptics to find like-minded people and amplify their messages. Those who completely reject vaccines are a small but vocal slice of the population about two per cent, she said.

Vaccine skeptics have borrowed personal freedom rhetoric and language from other groups, said Mai. With COVID-19 vaccines at hand, they are pivoting to focus more squarely on sowing doubts about the necessity for COVID vaccines and their safety.

Public officials always have to look behind them to see what misinformers are saying. They will have to think like them, in a way.

Past outbreaks have shown that communication has to be a two-way street, said Alison Thompson, a researcher in ethical issues in public health at the University of Toronto.

Peoples concerns about vaccines must be listened to, because not all concerns come from the extreme fringe of the anti-vaccine movement. There are legitimate concerns about how much we will know, what will happen if people are injured by vaccines, and who stands to profit most from COVID-19 vaccines.

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Vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19: How many will stay on the fence? - Windsor Star