Kelly Grindrod, professor at the University of Waterloo, said a single headline could make all the difference
Misinformation seems to be a common topic when it comes to getting the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Although an expert is trying to purify the air.
Kelly Grindrod, an associate professor in the University of Waterloo’s School of Pharmacy, said a single headline or ill-informed tourism policy could empty a vaccine clinic in minutes.
For the most part, Grindrod said it was doing pretty well, but reaching a certain percentile takes a lot of persuasion.
“So we’ll probably get an 80 percent vaccination based on the fact that we’re there with the first doses in the appropriate population and we get there quickly with the second doses,” she said.
“We may have a bit of work to make sure the second dose hits the same point. What we’re really focusing on right now is getting that number to 90 percent.”
Grindrod said that people who are really against vaccines are a small group with a loud voice, and the challenge is to get people to agree with them through science and facts.
“One of the challenges we have is that people don’t know what to do with this message,” she said.
βWhen I vaccinate people, people still come in and ask me if I have a coin stuck to my arm? Does that mean my vaccine didn’t work? “
Grindrod said all it takes is a headline to point people in the wrong direction.
“The only thing we really struggle with is that the headlines can be a number of things,” she said. “There might be a misleading headline that we saw at the World Health Organization where they misquoted WHO, saying that ‘WHO is against mixing vaccines where the message was that people go out alone and a third or got fourth dose. “
It was a lot of work, but we were able to successfully move thousands of doses of Moderna from pharmacies in our area to a large vaccine site that hopefully can be used quickly before it expires. Public health and pharmaceuticals can be isolated, but close partnerships make a big difference.
– Dr. Kelly Grindrod π¨π¦ PharmD ππ (@kgrindrod) July 27, 2021
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