Photo courtesy of Governor Edwards' twitter feed
All Louisianans, 16 and older, will be eligible for the COVID vaccine on Monday but some, remain hesitant. Tulane Epidemiologist Doctor Susan Hassig said it won’t be easy to change minds about the vaccine, but for those who have the capacity to clarify questions about the vaccine, it’s incumbent on them to do so for those.
“We just need to continue to communicate that as clearly as we can and allow people to get answers to their questions. That is going to be an ongoing process,” said Hassig.
Hassig said many people aren’t necessarily anti-vaccine but it is a complicated science and the COVID vaccines have been much more publicized than other vaccines in the past.
“Information is coming out in a way that we are not used to hearing and receiving it, I think broadly as a population, so it think helping to translate some of that is really important,” said Hassig.
The development of four different vaccinations for COVID in use around the world, Hassig said is an amazing scientific accomplishment, but understandably creates a sense of hesitancy among the general public.
“We have got to communicate from all sorts of different directions using good messengers to people to get them to understand what this can really do for us,” said Hassig.
Hassig said currently the average vaccination rate for those receiving at least one dose is approximately 25-percent and it needs to be much higher before we can have the pandemic under control.
Story written and reported by Brooke Thorington.
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