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By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
For COVID-19 vaccination, hesitancy and refusal of the novel products for so many was a lifesaving medical decision. However, the medical literature casts vaccine hesitancy like a disease, and now it is measured by the Oxford Vaccine Hesitancy Scale. This scale was developed in the UK BEFORE the vaccines rolled out and of note, does not ask about the major reason for hesitancy—vaccine safety.
Larson et al in the New England Journal of Medicine put a scientific lens on vaccine hesitancy and characterize it as mutable—implying that social media and doctors should be co-opted to change opinions to favor vaccines.
“Timing is everything when it comes to vaccine acceptance or hesitancy, and the mutable nature of vaccine hesitancy calls for new modes of analysis to characterize not only the temporal features of hesitancy but also the spatial (e.g., regional) features and the many behavioral manifestations and their effects on vaccine uptake. Such real-time data also allow investigation into contextual events that can help us understand the drivers of hesitancy. Vaccine acceptance can be increased, but responsiveness to emerging concerns is key. Given that physicians and other health care providers are still among the most trusted figures when it comes to health care advice, local information about the nature and scope of vaccine hesitancy in their communities may help them anticipate and support important conversations in the clinic.”
July 15, 2021 N Engl J Med 2021; 385:196-198 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2103313 Others have characterized vaccine hesitancy like a syringe and only when the plunger has thrust the product into the body does the color turn blue. Americans will readily recognize the political implications of this red to blue syringe.
Recently Kura and Abubakar summarized 20 studies using the imperceptive Oxford Hesitancy Scale and found it performed reliably, that is, people are consistently hesitant to take COVID-19 vaccines, but nowhere in the paper do the authors mention vaccine side effects or perceived safety.
In summary, there is an entire vein in the medical literature that treats vaccine hesitancy like a disease but does not get to the root cause of the issue, which is appropriate concern over vaccine safety. Be wary of authors and manuscripts on this topic. Many are using vaccine hesitancy as a weaponized tool to change popular opinion in the clinical sciences as well as public social media.
This rap titled “Just Say No” from RC The Rapper assisted by Chris Sky sums up the most of the determinants of vaccine hesitancy discussed above which were intensified by authoritarian lockdowns, mandates, and coercive government actions against the people. Kid should get some credit for being on point early—”Just Say No.”
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