Q:  Our employer is now requiring all employees to get vaccinated or be tested every other day.  I work with a colleague who wants to get the vaccine but is still very afraid of it.

I’ve heard that it’s counter-productive to badger vaccine-hesitant people with guilt or ridicule, which is tempting.  But I want to be helpful.  What can I do or say to dissuade them of their fears?

When you’re faced with a vaccine-hesitant coworker, you must first decide whether it’s worth your time and energy to engage them.  Some people are simply too entrenched in their views.  However, many others –although afraid and reluctant– are still receptive; specially now with the added pressure from employers to vaccinate. So, this may be a good opportunity to address a couple of common reasons mentioned by those who are hesitant, one a fear, the other a myth. Let’s see how we can address those without being condescending.

FEAR – The vaccine isn’t safe

Concerns such as “It was developed in a rush, they took shortcuts”; “It is still experimental”; “It causes XYZ side effect”, all point to safety.

What to say – The speed of development is a valid concern that I shared myself.  Until I dug a little deeper.

True, we all know that normally it takes years for a new drug or vaccine to get approved, and in this case, it happened very fast.  Scary fast.  But there are a couple of reasons.  First, everyone around the world stopped what they were doing and focused all their attention on finding a vaccine.  Second and more importantly, a LOT of the hard work had already been done.   You see,  COVID 19 is one of a large family of coronaviruses, among them SARS and MERS.  Those emerged in 2003 and 2012 and also threatened global health.  The knowledge obtained from vaccine development for those viruses was key in how fast the COVID vaccine was developed.  I think of it like making a new car-model-shell that goes over an existing chassis and engine.  That’s why the vaccine was ready to be tested in trials so quickly, by March 2020. 

Another thing that helped with the speed is that generally it’s time consuming to find people to volunteer for a new drug, with unknown risks. But for the COVID vaccine they had excess volunteers, many in healthcare, even had waiting lists.  The vaccine was in trials for about a year before getting emergency FDA approval and becoming widely available.  Now it has full FDA approval.

There are over 2 billion people vaccinated around the world (that’s 2,000 million!).  If the vaccine wasn’t safe it would be obvious by now. 

Another sign the vaccine is safe, is that pregnant women –who have to be very careful about what they put in their bodies– are advised to take it because it may transmit immunity to the baby, and because COVID is more dangerous while you are pregnant.

Want one more indicator the vaccine is safe?  It’s snarky, but the rich and powerful, celebrities, heads of state, politicians, –the most important, well-connected people in the world– were first in line to get it when it became available.

MYTH: I can fight the virus without the vaccine.

Examples of this thinking include: “It’s no worse than the common cold”; “I’m young and strong, if I get it, I’ll survive it, then I’ll be immune”; “If I get it, I can take this other thing (hydroxychloroquine, monoclonal antibodies, Ivermectin, vitamin C, D, Zinc) and survive”.

What to say– Nobody likes to take a vaccine unless it’s absolutely necessary, and we all should be skeptical and think for ourselves.  It’s understandable to be cautious.  But this virus is unlike anything else in our lifetimes.   Yes, it’s true sometimes you can fight off the COVID virus on your own. Some people get infected and it only feels like the flu, or some lucky ones don’t even know they had it. Some survive it just fine. But others don’t, and some die. Even young and healthy. Why take such a gamble?

News stories are full of people who gambled believing they could self-medicate, taking various remedies only to deteriorate and die.   Five anti-vax radio talk hosts who also gambled and believed they could handle it, have died in the last month.

Getting infected with COVID while unvaccinated is playing Russian roulette. Yes, most times you can win the game.  But when you lose, you lose big. You die. Unvaccinated people are 11 times more likely to die of COVID than vaccinated people. So why take a chance with your life?    Although the vaccine doesn’t mean you won’t catch it, it almost guarantees you won’t die from it.  

I hope I’ve answered some fears and dispelled some myths and that you can talk to your coworker without them feeling patronized.

©Copyright Eva Del Rio.  Send questions to eva@evadelrio.com

NOTE: This column was published in The Gainesville Sun on September 20, 2021