{"id":885,"date":"2021-08-02T16:35:06","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T20:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/?p=885"},"modified":"2021-08-30T09:20:47","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T13:20:47","slug":"marketwatch-dr-scott-ratzan-quoted-how-families-approached-loved-ones-about-getting-vaccinated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/marketwatch-dr-scott-ratzan-quoted-how-families-approached-loved-ones-about-getting-vaccinated\/","title":{"rendered":"MarketWatch: Dr. Scott Ratzan Quoted – How Families Approached Loved Ones About Getting Vaccinated"},"content":{"rendered":"
Dr. Scott Ratzan, Executive Director of BP2C provided his expertise in a recent MarketWatch article written by Meera Jagannathan on August 2, 2021, entitled “‘I don’t want to lose you’: How families approached their loved oves about the importance of getting the COVID-19 vaccination.”<\/a><\/h5>\n

\u201cEverybody who refuses a vaccine is not an \u2018anti-vaxxer,\u2019\u201d said Scott Ratzan, a physician and distinguished lecturer at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health. For example, more than half of unvaccinated people surveyed by KFF in June cited the newness of the vaccines and concerns about side effects as major reasons. Many people are \u201cvaccine ready\u201d and receptive to communication from trusted messengers like their doctors, friends or religious leaders, and may just need\u00a0a \u201cnudge\u201d from their employer or school<\/a>, Ratzan added.<\/p>\n

Below is the full article from MarketWatch.<\/h5>\n

Late adopters of the COVID-19 vaccines are out there \u2014 but how do you approach them, if at all?<\/p>\n

They deserve patience, not shaming, says 40-year-old Theresa Chapple, who says her sister was vaccinated recently after opting to\u00a0\u201cwait and see\u201d how the vaccines worked out for others<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

As of Monday, nearly 58% of the total U.S. population and 70% of adults\u00a0had received<\/a>\u00a0at least one dose of the vaccine. But is it possible to change someone\u2019s mind if they have told their friends and family that they don\u2019t trust the vaccination process \u2014 or, for that matter, the federal government?<\/p>\n

The vaccines from Johnson & Johnson, the Pfizer-BioNTech pertnership, and Moderna are all issued under emergency-use authorization, a faster process that’s less rigorous than full Food and Drug Administration approval.<\/p>\n

Emergency-use authorization is used\u00a0exactly for circumstances such as this<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 a global pandemic like COVID-19 or HIV\/AIDS and, according to the FDA, \u201cchemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats including infectious diseases.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Chapple\u2019s sister had exercised great caution against the coronavirus and received other immunizations in the past, she also had concerns about the speed with which the COVID-19 vaccines were developed.<\/p>\n

But her concerns went deeper than that. She also had distrust of \u201cwhat type of vaccine\u201d the government might send to Black communities, said Chapple, an epidemiologist and director of the Oak Park, Ill., public health department.<\/p>\n

Her sister had also previously had negative reproductive healthcare experiences. \u201cShe really believed there\u2019s\u00a0a difference in medical treatment<\/a>, medical access, that you get based off of status, income [and] race in America,\u201d Chapple, who is Black, told MarketWatch. \u201cShe didn\u2019t want the leftovers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chapple listened to and validated her sister\u2019s concerns, inserting relevant data and updates from the scientific community to shift the narrative \u201clittle by little\u201d when she found openings.<\/p>\n

She acknowledged that the medical establishment had made missteps, drawing distinctions between\u00a0the U.S. government\u2019s shameful 40-year Tuskegee experiment<\/a>\u00a0and its more recent efforts to\u00a0boost vaccine access in communities of color<\/a>\u00a0hit hard by the pandemic.<\/p>\n

She even encouraged her sister to get vaccinated in a predominantly white neighborhood, if that would give her greater peace of mind.<\/p>\n

Chapple\u2019s sister and teenage niece were vaccinated about a month ago, after experiencing \u201cpositive peer pressure\u201d from being the last members of their bubble still unvaccinated, she tweeted recently.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat finally got through to her was her 15-year-old\u2019s pleas to listen to auntie (me), who always tells them the full truth, not just the rainbow shiny stuff,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

With stagnant COVID-19 vaccination rates in a pandemic that have worsened in the U.S. in recent weeks, an increasing number of employers\u00a0have embraced vaccine mandates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With stagnant COVID-19 vaccination rates in a pandemic that have worsened in the U.S. in recent weeks, an increasing number of employers\u00a0have embraced vaccine mandates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, an internal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention document said the more-transmissible delta variant\u00a0meant \u201cthe war has changed,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0with the agency recommending last week that even vaccinated individuals in many areas\u00a0resume masking up indoors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Andy Slavitt, a former adviser to the Biden administration on COVID-19, recently suggested that\u00a0up to 99% of the Americans dying<\/a>\u00a0of the coronavirus were unvaccinated.<\/p>\n

The share of Americans who want to \u201cwait and see\u201d before getting vaccinated has dwindled since late 2020, while the shares of those who will get the vaccine \u201conly if required\u201d or \u201cdefinitely not\u201d have barely budged in months, according to\u00a0June polling<\/a>\u00a0by the healthcare think tank KFF.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlack and Hispanic adults along with younger adults remain somewhat more likely than their counterparts to say they will \u2018wait and see\u2019 before getting vaccinated, while Republicans, rural residents, and White Evangelical Christians continue to be disproportionately more likely to say they will definitely not get vaccinated,\u201d KFF\u2019s recent report said.<\/p>\n

But health experts and laypeople who shared their own tales of persuasion with MarketWatch suggested it was still possible \u2014 and worthwhile \u2014 to attempt to change individual minds about vaccination, even this late in the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of this is now ground game. We\u2019re not seeing vaccination clinics of thousands or tens of thousands as we did in January through March and April,\u201d said Ashley Ritter, the CEO of the science-communication project Dear Pandemic and director of clinical care research at the Philadelphia nonprofit NewCourtland.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting pockets of two, five, 10 people in a community vaccinated \u2014 those are huge wins,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

You\u00a0may not be able to persuade everyone<\/a>, of course, and some people may have medical, religious or other reasons for not getting vaccinated that are beyond the powers of persuasion, even by the most well-intentioned relatives.<\/p>\n

But, given federal health officials\u2019 warnings that the country faces a \u201cpandemic of the unvaccinated<\/a>,\u201d here are some strategies for those who believe it\u2019s their responsibility to try:<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t assume they\u2019re an \u2018anti-vaxxer\u2019<\/strong><\/h6>\n

You can\u2019t oversimplify the \u201ccomplex\u201d pool of unvaccinated individuals, who have a range of cultural, historical and pragmatic concerns, said Wafaa El-Sadr, a Columbia University professor of epidemiology and medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody who refuses a vaccine is not an \u2018anti-vaxxer,\u2019\u201d said Scott Ratzan, a physician and distinguished lecturer at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health. For example, more than half of unvaccinated people surveyed by KFF in June cited the newness of the vaccines and concerns about side effects as major reasons.<\/p>\n

Many people are \u201cvaccine ready\u201d and receptive to communication from trusted messengers like their doctors, friends or religious leaders, and may just need\u00a0a \u201cnudge\u201d from their employer or school<\/a>, Ratzan added.<\/p>\n

Try a personal appeal<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Make a personal plea for why you care so much about this person getting vaccinated, and explain why you chose to get the shots yourself, said primary-care doctor Kavita Patel, a nonresident fellow at the center-left Brookings Institution who served as a policy director in former president Barack Obama\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

Sarah Wardein, 32, of Virginia Beach, Va., took this approach. Wardein recently learned her mother-in-law, who felt mortality was inevitable and believed that\u00a0antibodies from her COVID-19 infection<\/a>\u00a0last summer would protect her, was planning to forgo vaccination.<\/p>\n

When her mother-in-law said she assumed this meant Wardein and her husband wouldn\u2019t want her visiting for their daughter\u2019s upcoming birthday, Wardein says her heart dropped.<\/p>\n

In a lengthy text message the next day, Wardein expressed \u2014 along with warnings about the delta variant and information on the benefits of vaccination \u2014 how much she loved and appreciated her mother-in-law.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lost my mom to suicide (by drowning), and my dad to alcoholism. Both preventable deaths. I don\u2019t want to lose you from something equally preventable,\u201d she wrote in the message, which she shared with MarketWatch. \u201cYou bring so much joy and light to my and the girls\u2019 life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wardein\u2019s mother-in-law sent a photo of her COVID-19 vaccination card later that day. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I hit a nerve. I probably will never find out,\u201d said Wardein, who says she took care to center the discussion around her mother-in-law. \u201cBut at least I said it all, and she took steps to protect herself.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a one-way conversation<\/h6>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not going to convince people without letting them air their grievances, and they\u2019ll automatically think they\u2019re in a fight if you\u2019re just preaching to them,\u201d said Brandon Bradford, 35, of San Jose, Calif., who works in renewable energy development and says he has convinced several friends and coworkers to get vaccinated.<\/p>\n

And remember: What one person views as grievances may be another person\u2019s deeply felt concerns.<\/p>\n

Ponta Abadi, 29, of Washington, D.C., had long feared for the safety of an older relative with preexisting health risks \u2014 but says her vaccine-hesitant loved one backed out of the vaccination appointment she had scheduled for him.<\/p>\n

While he had never espoused any QAnon-related beliefs, Abadi found useful advice on Reddit\u2019s \u201cQAnon Casualties\u201d forum, which\u00a0offers resources<\/a>\u00a0for communicating with loved ones \u201ctaken in by\u201d the conspiracy theory.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I learned is the temptation to try to fact-check someone, especially when you have a lot of knowledge \u2026 is not actually useful,\u201d said Abadi, who works in public health. \u201cThere\u2019s a big focus on empathizing with the person and making sure they feel heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abadi looked up common concerns about the vaccine and talked to her relative on the phone, referencing notes on her computer. She responded with language like \u201cYeah, I wondered about that too\u201d and \u201cI totally understand that, and that makes sense as a concern,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, \u201cthe idea that he would be able to see me again if he got vaccinated was what I think drove him to get the vaccine,\u201d Abadi said. Seeing her sob with relief on a FaceTime call afterward, she added, likely \u201chelped him feel more secure about making the decision.\u201d \u201cHe saw that I wasn\u2019t lying when I said it mattered to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meet them where they are<\/strong><\/h6>\n

A.C., a West Texas resident who asked that MarketWatch withhold her full name to protect the identities of those she had counseled about vaccination, said that losing her mother to COVID-19 shortly before the first vaccines were authorized had made her passionate about getting her fellow community members vaccinated.<\/p>\n

She said she has swayed dozens of people on vaccination \u2014\u00a0including family members and acquaintances, about two-thirds Republican and one-third Democrat \u2014 by using \u201ccommon sense to appeal to their logic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many have expressed concerns stemming from \u201cdisinformation\u201d they heard\u00a0in church, from religious leaders<\/a>\u00a0or on TV, she said. (Meanwhile, many faith leaders\u00a0have also encouraged<\/a>\u00a0their followers to get vaccinated.)<\/p>\n

For example, A.C. said she told one woman who believed God would protect her from the virus to get vaccinated \u201cnot because you don\u2019t feel that God is protecting you, but because you know also that God has also instituted other means by which we can be healed and taken care of.\u201d \u201cI said, \u2018Is there anywhere in the Bible where God is opposed to hospitals or medicine?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In response to \u201cpro-life\u201d arguments against vaccination, A.C. questioned why people wouldn\u2019t take steps to protect their own lives and their children\u2019s. \u201cI would say, if you\u2019re pro-life, you want to keep everyone alive \u2014 especially ones that are already here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

(While the vaccine makers used decades-old fetal cell lines in testing or production and manufacturing, the vaccines themselves\u00a0do not contain any fetal tissue<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Allow for follow-up questions<\/strong><\/h6>\n

\u201cBe specific and answer the concern that somebody\u2019s raising,\u201d El-Sadr said. \u201cAlmost take it as homework, and try and do the research and come back with a response.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradford, for example, said he pulled out a laptop and whiteboard for an informal lunchtime discussion with coworkers who had vaccine concerns \u2014 writing down questions and answers, clearing up misunderstandings, letting people \u201cflesh out their worries,\u201d and asking lots of follow-up questions.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0graphic<\/a>\u00a0showing how the vaccine was safely developed at such unprecedented speed proved particularly useful, Bradford said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the time, there\u2019s one or two pieces of misinformation that they build their entire mindset from,\u201d he added, and it\u2019s important to root that out.<\/p>\n

Stories may hit home more than data<\/strong><\/h6>\n

\u201cPeople are more influenced by stories and anecdotes than by statistics,\u201d said Gretchen Chapman, a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, citing a wide range of social psychology literature.<\/p>\n

In other words, it\u2019s probably more compelling to explain what helped you overcome your own vaccine hesitancy and describe the mild but normal side effects you experienced, rather than dive into\u00a0county-level data<\/a>\u00a0on vaccination and hospitalizations, Chapman said.<\/p>\n

Play the long game \u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/h6>\n

There\u2019s no magic bullet to make someone fully confident in vaccination, El-Sadr said: \u201cIt\u2019s a matter of having an ongoing conversation, and there\u2019s no guarantee of success.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith my sister, it was not a one-time conversation,\u201d Chapple said. \u201cThis was months long, and it was not overwhelming or overbearing \u2014 just [out of] our two-hour engagement with each other, let\u2019s spend seven minutes discussing what your thoughts are today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026 but strike while the iron is hot<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Some people have no strong feelings about vaccination, but rather \u201cthis sense of, \u2018I can\u2019t bother, it\u2019s too complicated, I\u2019m too busy,\u2019\u201d El-Sadr said. In that case, \u201cthe most important thing one can do is to facilitate them getting the vaccine, and encourage them, and in every way make it easy for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

That means that when your friend says they\u2019re willing to get vaccinated, you should \u201cbe ready with the pharmacy that has walk-in hours; be ready to drive with that individual to get vaccinated, and stay with them while they get vaccinated,\u201d Ritter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one\u2019s going to jab them without their consent,\u201d Patel said, but making vaccination as convenient as possible helps make it hard to refuse.<\/p>\n

Try an \u2018emotional vaccine passport\u2019<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Patel suggested employing what she calls a \u201csocial\u201d or \u201cemotional\u201d vaccine passport \u2014 saying,\u00a0for example, \u201cI love you, you mean a lot to me, and you\u2019re not coming into my house unless you\u2019re vaccinated. It\u2019s not personal; it\u2019s for my family\u2019s safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s, \u2018My son\u2019s turning 5 and I really want you to come, but I can\u2019t let you come unless you get vaccinated,\u2019 that actually works on people,\u201d Patel said, noting that many people are planning weddings and other events. \u201cPeople want to get back into social gatherings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Framing vaccination as a key to unlocking certain freedoms \u2014 to take in a baseball game or go to church, for example \u2014 may also be effective,\u00a0a recent Atlantic piece suggests.<\/a><\/p>\n

Drive home the risks of remaining unvaccinated<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Many people haven\u2019t been vaccinated because they think their risk-mitigation strategies have worked thus far and don\u2019t see the risks in contracting the virus, Ratzan said. \u201cSo we have to continue to let people know that COVID is real, people are dying, and the number of cases each day not only threatens them but their families and others,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The golden rule: avoid shaming and insults<\/strong><\/h6>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t yell; don\u2019t berate; don\u2019t tell the person you\u2019re an idiot; don\u2019t cut them out of the family over this one issue,\u201d Chapman said.<\/p>\n

After all, not everyone wants to be the first to do something, Chapple added \u2014\u00a0and \u201cjust because you\u2019re in the middle or close to the end does not mean you should be shamed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Scott Ratzan, Executive Director of BP2C provided his expertise in a recent MarketWatch article written by Meera Jagannathan on August 2, 2021, entitled “‘I don’t want to lose you’: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":888,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions\/888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}