1/ Interested in learning more about VACCINE CONFIDENCE, what some call VACCINE HESITANCY? Have a listen:
- EPIDEMIC.fm S1E64: concerns about vaccines are as old as vaccines themselves, dating back to the late 1800s and smallpox. justhumanproductions.org/podcasts/epide…
3/ Get a fuller picture of the African American experience with vaccines and public health and why we need to prove ourselves trustworthy to build trust in vaccines.
- EPIDEMIC.fm S1E68: justhumanproductions.org/podcasts/s1e68…
5/ According to a recent survey by the @KFF, rural Americans are among those reporting the lowest intent to get COVID vaccine. What are rural healthcare providers doing to care for their communities?
- EPIDEMIC.fm S1E70: justhumanproductions.org/podcasts/s1e70…
6/ And more episodes on vaccine confidence to come in the next few weeks! Stay tuned
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2/ "The lack of diversity in the scientific and health professions—a longstanding manifestation of racism—can no longer be ignored, excused, or attributed to uncontrollable factors."
1/ Apologies for not posting this sooner. I've been tied up juggling multiple jobs (Bellevue + media + congressional testimony + other), but I think it's important to get this out there now. I could have last night, but...
2/ The Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called for a pause on use of the J&J vaccine in this country. Six cases of blood clots have been reported among a million women between the ages of 18 and 48 who have received the vaccine.
3/ To put this in context, women who are not taking birth control pills have a 1 to 5 in 10,000 per year risk of getting a blood clot. This risk increases by more than 4x during and immediately after pregnancy.
1/ I have counseled patients on:
- why they need to keep taking their tuberculosis antibiotics for months
- why they need to get tested for HIV or sexually transmitted infections
- why they should take pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV or antiretroviral therapy
2/ I have worked throughout sub-Saharan Africa and spoken with religious leaders, teachers, community health workers, youth, journalists, activists, and politicians.
e.g. why didn't Guineans & other West Africans think Ebola wasn't real? Because they didn't trust the government.
3/ Analytic methods only take you so far. The math we use in epidemiology and economics, for example, is essentially the same. What's different is an understanding of the context, and that comes with experience on the ground, working with people.
1/ It's really important that the FDA & CDC informed healthcare providers about the VERY RARE risk of blood clots after vaccination with J&J vaccine. theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
We normally treat blood clots with heparin, but heparin can make things worse and even be deadly here.
2/ I'm not too worried about the latest news about the J&J vaccine will mean for the U.S. We'll have plenty of Pfizer and Moderna vaccine to vaccinate all Americans. I'm worried about what this could mean for the rest of the world.
3/ It's essential that the CDC and FDA prove themselves trustworthy. Worries about vaccine safety and efficacy and a lack of trust in the health system and government drive low confidence in vaccines.
2/ Can we predict where the next surge will be? It may be too late for Minnesota, Illinois, too. Should we send more vaxx to the NE, where transmission is also up? If there's a seasonality or geography to this, will the southern states be next (like last summer)?
3/ Unless we can predict and get ahead of a surge, it doesn't make sense to reallocate vaccine supply.
1/ Michigan is facing a surge in COVID cases due to
- the more infectious & virulent B.1.1.7 variant
- less masking, more indoor gatherings
- travel
Young adults hospitalized for severe COVID. nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us/…
2/ But I'm not sure that surging vaccine supply to Michigan will help now.
People are misapplying the concept of ring vaccination, an important tool in smallpox eradication, to COVID.
3/ There's value in giving smallpox vaccination even AFTER exposure.
But the median incubation period for smallpox is 10-14 days.
The median incubation period for COVID is 4-5 days.