Imagine dying and denying that which is killing you is real.

Sounds like a cult thing to me...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-covid-19-vaccine-hesitance-1.6008223

Some people CBC News spoke with said they simply don't believe in the vaccine. Pete Peters, a 77-year-old living in Winkler, was offered the vaccine but chose not to take it.

"I have the papers at home. If I want to have it, [they'll] come over," he said.

Others, like C.J. Friesen, are against vaccinations. She hasn't been vaccinated for anything before, but the speed in which COVID-19 vaccines were created and approved also make her apprehensive, she said.

Friesen has also lost trust in the institutions reporting COVID-19 data and doesn't understand how the pandemic's waves come and go.

"I trust in God. I trust he'll get us through this," she said.

There is no clear evidence that religion specifically is causing vaccine hesitancy, said Reimer — but some Winkler and Morden residents believe it's true.

"With the government shutting down churches, a lot of people are viewing that negatively," said Burt, who believes in the Christian God.



https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winkler-doctor-hospital-vaccine-hesitancy-1.6044904

A southern Manitoba hospital physician says staff are exhausted by a recent crush of admissions, but they're also up against something else that's draining energy and morale.

Staff at Boundary Trails Health Centre are routinely hearing from sick and unvaccinated patients who believe the pandemic is a hoax — some remaining defiant even on the brink of death.

"We hear this almost every day, and I know that's startling," said Dr. Ganesan Abbu. "It's difficult ... to know that almost 100 per cent of our admissions have not been vaccinated."

Abbu is an anesthetist and special care unit doctor at Boundary Trails, located over 100 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg and between Morden and Winkler.

The district surrounding the two small cities has the lowest vaccination rate in the province, according to provincial data.

More and more patients have flowed in during the past two weeks amid Manitoba's third wave. Abbu says he and many coworkers are waking up before dawn to start work lately just to keep up.

The hospital has converted two of its medicine and surgery units into COVID-19 areas, he said. The hospital also experienced an oxygen shortage over the weekend based on the increasing number of COVID-19 patients being put on ventilators.


A southern Manitoba hospital physician says staff are exhausted by a recent crush of admissions, but they're also up against something else that's draining energy and morale.

Staff at Boundary Trails Health Centre are routinely hearing from sick and unvaccinated patients who believe the pandemic is a hoax — some remaining defiant even on the brink of death.

"We hear this almost every day, and I know that's startling," said Dr. Ganesan Abbu. "It's difficult ... to know that almost 100 per cent of our admissions have not been vaccinated."

Abbu is an anesthetist and special care unit doctor at Boundary Trails, located over 100 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg and between Morden and Winkler.

The district surrounding the two small cities has the lowest vaccination rate in the province, according to provincial data.

More and more patients have flowed in during the past two weeks amid Manitoba's third wave. Abbu says he and many coworkers are waking up before dawn to start work lately just to keep up.

The hospital has converted two of its medicine and surgery units into COVID-19 areas, he said. The hospital also experienced an oxygen shortage over the weekend based on the increasing number of COVID-19 patients being put on ventilators.

Abbu has personally experienced patients who, even nearing death, remained in denial and continued to assert untruths about the pandemic.

"I've had two patients who have died and even right until the time that they died, they didn't believe that they had it," Abbu said.

"It's not as though we are trying to get the patient to acknowledge that they have COVID before they die. These patients are so much in denial, they are volunteering this information."

Abbu said one patient who didn't believe they had COVID-19 went home and later died. The family of another patient who died didn't believe it was due to COVID-19 and asked if they could have an autopsy to confirm, he said.

Though Abbu says it's only a "vociferous minority" of people in the Southern Health Region who don't take COVID-19 seriously, what Boundary Trails staff are seeing in the hospital is part of a larger issue.

Southern Health has the lowest vaccine uptake rates by region in Manitoba. Just over 40 per cent of people there have received at least one dose, which is about 15 to 20 per cent lower than any of the other four regions.

Manitoba health officials have had to team up with local religious and community leaders recently to try to spur vaccine uptake. Though the needle appears to be moving in the right direction in some communities, progress is slow.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2021 07:57AM by anybody.

Data does not move those who use Belief - not data - to make decisions

Hallelujah

A number of articles state that their was denial and pushback during the 1918-19 Spanish Flu pandemic as well, and that "quack remedies flourished." Human nature, I guess.

https://crosscut.com/2020/04/meet-anthony-fauci-1918-washington

I feel terrible for the hospital staff. They don't deserve this. They are exhausted and depressed. Who knew willful ignorance would be such a factor.

Edited to complete last sentence that got cut off.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2021 11:53AM by dagny.

Exactly. I feel for the hospital staff. How can they possibly keep this up? What a slap in the face to have your very sick patient tell you Co-vid is a hoax when you are practically falling apart from exhaustion and worried about your own family.

I still say "convenient ignorance" is a their desperate, selfish way to show that hey are "smarter than" ---haha. Always the ignorant who want to show they can't be fooled.

I once had an employee who was reading a newspaper as he waited at the front door for me to open. Didn't seem like the newspaper type. One day he was holding the paper upside down. Illiterate, but out to prove he wasn't. Could have taken a class. They are free lots of places.

Ha!

I agree. We are exhausting our medical workers. It's not fair to them.

Aha!!


Death is a hoax!

I like the hat on the bed. I'll bet the acronym is short for Multiply American Graves Again.

"These patients are so much in denial, they are volunteering this information."

What the patients are actually doing is desperately trying to convince themselves it isn't covid, although deep down they realize that it is. Trying to resolve cog dis, just like mormons bearing too-fervent testimonies.

It's oddly comforting to hear that the US doesn't have a monopoly on stupid. Sometimes it seems like we do.

Winkler and Morden, and east to Steinbach are the heart of the Mennonite Belt in Manitoba. I don’t know what the relative percentages are, but the more liberal Mennonites think the denialists are out of their minds. Which they are.


Meanwhile, Canada started way behind the US in vaccination rates because of lack of supply. Now they are well ahead of the US, because we have even more denialists. Way to go, US peeps.

In related news, a SL Valley nurse wrote in to the SLTrib yesterday and said she has never treated anyone for a reaction to the vaccine. She’s lost count of how many she has treated for covid.

Article, June 2021:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/southern-manitoba-winkler-covid-vaccine-hesitancy-1.6049024


Excerpts:

“Katharina Giesbrecht didn't plan to get vaccinated. It took a terrifying brush with COVID-19 to convince the once-hesitant Mennonite woman to change her mind and book her jab.

"I was very against the vaccine for the longest time," she said. "I said, 'You know what, let's just let God deal with it.… He knows what the next step is, whether we die or we don't.'"

“Giesbrecht is sharing her story in hopes of persuading vaccine-hesitant members of her faith community to reconsider — something that could be a challenge, given pockets of southern Manitoba, home to many Mennonites, have the lowest vaccination rates in the province.

“Dr. Abbu recently told CBC News that nearly all of the COVID-19 patients admitted at Boundary Trails have been unvaccinated. It's common for those patients to say they believe the pandemic is a hoax and espouse other myths about the vaccine, he said. Some have remained steadfast in their beliefs even on death's door.

“Boundary Trails happens to be surrounded by Mennonite communities that provincial officials say have higher rates of vaccine hesitancy due to distrust of government, misinformation and other factors.

“Abbu has lived and worked in Winkler for over two decades and says he understands the need to bridge cultural and religious gaps.

“During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, he says he helped his school-age children, both now doctors, on a project. They handed out health and vaccine information pamphlets to local churches written in Low German, a dialect spoken by many southern Manitoba Mennonites.

"We tried to reach out in a way that engages that segment of the community, that tries to build trust," he said.

"Vaccines and antibiotics are the two things that have made the human race live longer … and I think that's the kind of positive message we need to use."


“[Dr.] Klassen recently recorded videos with Winkler Mayor Martin Harder in an effort to reach those who remain on the fence about the vaccine.

"If people trust their doctors to look after serious illnesses, for them to give them an anesthetic, to do surgery on them, to look after their heart attacks, I'd say we could be trustworthy in this realm as well," he said.

“The 72-year-old family physician and anesthetist was born in Winkler and has practised medicine there for over four decades. He's also Mennonite and a churchgoer.

"There is no conflict in my mind about getting vaccinated and being a person of faith," he said. "COVID is real.… Of all the tools that we've got, vaccination is the one that's going to potentially lead us to return to a more normal life."

---

I like Dr. Klassen’s approach, saying people trust doctors to look after them during serious illness and perform surgery on, why not trust their advice about the CV vaccine? Good point! It likely really helps too, in that area, that he’s a Mennonite himself.

Mennonites I have known are more mainstream. I never got the impression they were cloistered or fundamentalist regarding social or medical issues.

It’s good to read of the successful outreach community members of influence are engaged in. Everything that increases the vaccine rate is all good.

We are fortunate in Canada that the decision makers in the federal government and in (most of) the provincial governments didn’t make COVID-19 a political issue but actually worked together to combat the shared threat and stepped back so public health officials and physicians and scientists are leading the pandemic response. It has kept our case numbers and mortality rate as low as possible: 1.44M cases, 26,670 deaths. (If we had been better prepared to safeguard seniors in care homes there would have been fewer deaths there). I think we also have fewer high profile fundamentalist preachers with large followings who have decided it’s a question of faith when obviously COVID, a deadly virus, is a medical issue.

I have written several posts about what I see as the difference between those who are vaccine hesitant and the ones who are vaccine resistant. I believe you can present valid vaccine information to someone who is hesitant and they can come to change their mind about vaccinations (and masking and other preventive measures) once they are more informed. I would make the effort to help a hesitant person learn more about the benefits of the vaccine. It helps to discover the cause of their hesitancy. I believe they can see reason once they have more information. It is much more challenging to try and reach a person who is resistant – their views are entrenched and formed by influences and material quite apart from reputable mainstream sources and scientific/medical information. The bottom line, to me, is that you have to check your sources – their qualifications in the pertinent fields and their reliability, reputations and potential motives for what they say and do. And hopefully, your own common sense can help to sort out the wheat from the chaff in some regards.

This article from May 2021 discusses vaccine resistance in Canada:

https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/the-vaccine-resistance-problem-in-canada-and-how-confront-it/

From the article, these simple statements explain well the reasons behind why people refuse the vaccine:

“The vaccine resistant are more likely to believe that the pandemic is a hoax, or a scam designed to make money for big pharma and hospitals, and the people who believe that are concentrated in rural areas.

“Other areas have issues with hesitancy—often lower educated, lower income urbanites—people who don’t have enough information to know that the vaccines are safe, or are apathetic about their health. In other cases, like among some minority groups, hesitancy is rooted in a well-founded distrust of authority linked to historic abuses. [a reference to First Nations peoples, I believe, re experiments carried out on them by govt]

“But the resistant people are different in that they believe things that aren’t true, and they are hard to convince.”

Other excerpts from the article:

“Maxime Bernier, the leader of the People’s Party of Canada, and Randy Hillier, the independent MLA for Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, were both ticketed at an ugly anti-lockdown rally in Peterborough, Ont., on April 24. Bernier slipped away before the worst part, when Hillier and his unmasked supporters crowded around police officers, cursing and insulting them at close range, a feature of the protests Hillier has been organizing around southern Ontario, part of an ongoing, spittle-flecked battle for freedom against what his supporters see as tyrannical health restrictions.

“Bernier and Hillier are both members of the End the Lockdowns Caucus, along with independent MP Derek Sloan, 20 municipal politicians, mostly from Western Canada, and three former MPs. There are a lot of “formers” in the movement—including Bernier, Hillier and Sloan—all of whom are failed leadership candidates for mainstream parties. Bernier is a former MP, having failed to hold his Quebec seat after leaving the Conservative Party of Canada. Sloan, who was ejected from the Tories, will likely be a former MP whenever the election is held, and Hillier, who was ejected from the Ontario Progressive Conservatives, is likely to lose his seat in the legislature.

“But for the last few months, these marginal figures have been drawing crowds of hundreds, rallying for the freedom to violate provincial health rules that have shut businesses and imposed restrictions on worship.

“The steam is likely to go out of the movement within months as infections go down and restrictions are lifted, but that depends on reaching herd immunity, which depends on an unknown percentage of Canadians getting vaccinated—somewhere between 75 and 90 per cent, according to virologists.

**“If enough people don’t get jabs, COVID will never go away.”** [ my emphasis]

“And the crowds that Hillier and his friends draw are more likely to refuse vaccines, just as they refuse to wear masks or accept lockdowns. Their movement may make it harder to stamp out the virus.

A look at the map shows what’s going on, says Rupen Seoni, of Environics Analytics, who in March completed a study of attitudes towards vaccines across different social segments, using detailed demographic analyses of every bit of Canada. …that describe the social values and lifestyle of every postal code in Canada… The in-depth analysis allows Environics to predict how people in a given area think and behave. “That can be for what kind of toothpaste people prefer to something like we’re seeing today in terms of their attitudes towards how the pandemic has been handled and how likely they are to be vaccinated.”

“A short drive from Peterborough, there are a number of rural postal codes where vaccine resistance is higher… …around Spruce Grove, Alta., where hordes of maskless protesters tore down a fence police set up to stop unmasked, rule-violating worship at Grace Life church, whose pastor James Coates spent 35 days in jail after refusing to agree to abide by court orders. The same demographics are also present around Bowden, Alta., where a No More Lockdowns’ Rodeo was held on May 1.”

“In the most vaccine-positive geoprofiles fewer than four per cent say they won’t get jabbed, while New Country is 24 per cent. The national average is about 13 per cent.

“The majority of people in rural, largely white areas want to get vaccinated and believe in wearing masks, but the number of people who don’t believe in the scientific consensus around COVID is higher there than in most places. “There’s a small minority of the population that is larger than average in those segments,” says Seoni. “It’s taken a fairly hard stance of saying, no, we’re not going to get vaccinated.”

“Environics took data from a national survey of 10,000 collected in March and cross-referenced it with their geoprofiles and looked for correlations with vaccine resistance and social attitudes. The strongest correlation was with belief in conspiracy theories. The vaccine resistant are more likely to believe that the pandemic is a hoax, or a scam designed to make money for big pharma and hospitals, and the people who believe that are concentrated in rural areas.

“Other areas have issues with hesitancy—often lower educated, lower income urbanites—people who don’t have enough information to know that the vaccines are safe, or are apathetic about their health. In other cases, like among some minority groups, hesitancy is rooted in a well-founded distrust of authority linked to historic abuses. But the resistant people are different in that they believe things that aren’t true, and they are hard to convince.

“Graves, who sits on a federal Vaccine Confidence Task Force, thinks it is a waste of time to try to convince the disinformed that vaccines are safe and valuable.

“They think that’s all fake news and they’ll give you their YouTube video, their Plandemic video or whatever it is that has sorted it all out for them, and you’re not going to move them.”

“Pollster Nick Kouvalis, who has done political work for Rob and Doug Ford, as well as John Tory and Christy Clark, thinks there is no reason to try to convince the conspiracy theorists to get vaccinated.

“You ignore them,” he says. “That’s what you do. They’re not in government. They don’t have any power. The polling is very clear that their ranks are somewhere around seven or eight per cent, but maybe as high as 11 per cent. And they’re not growing. You’re always going to have 10 per cent of the people that believe the Earth is flat. You’re always going to have 10 per cent of the people that think masks are bad.”

“Public health officials in Israel worked with religious leaders to convince hard-to-reach religious communities to get vaccinated, confronting and combatting conspiracy theories. In Canada, where some evangelicals are mistrustful of governments out of step with their values on social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage, officials need to reach out and make sure those cultural issues aren’t a barrier to health measures, Peters said.

“Bruce Clemenger, president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, warns against making assumptions about vaccine resistance among evangelicals.

“When we go overseas and work in other countries, one of the key priorities is medicine … There’s a perception that evangelicals are anti-science, but that’s not lived on the ground. In most cases we’re talking about the outliers.”

“The outliers are churches like Grace Life, which is not a member of the Clemenger’s organization. Many evangelicals have specific concerns about measures that limited worship but accept that governments must protect people, Clemenger said.

“Nobody needs to convince him of the importance of taking measures against COVID. He spent 16 days in hospital in December with COVID, and is still coping with lingering health issues. He said at the heart of Christianity is the admonition to love thy neighbour as you love yourself. “One way we can love our neighbours is by following the restrictions of getting vaccinated. Because it’s not just you you’re putting in threat,” he said. “The disease is highly communicable and it puts a stress on a public health system.”

-----

I posted the other day about Christians preaching love for one another and how I thought that should drive their desire to be vaccinated, as recommended by Public Health, and to follow other preventive measures such as masks and distancing. I do believe that the resisters amongst the evangelicals are in the minority of Christians, at least here in Canada. As always, it’s not that instructive nor accurate to lump everybody into one huge group. If all our statements are as accurate as possible there’s more chance we will be taken seriously by those who hear/read us.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2021 02:23PM by Nightingale.

Thank you, Nightingale.

This is a fresh perspective on what we, as a nation, have been dealing with down here.

(The Israeli approach is also of interest--at least to me. I can see how the Israeli government could effectively utilize that approach to create much better results than would otherwise have been the case. I hope that American officials in the "religiously right" Jewish areas of the USA--like the enclaves within New York state--have utilized the learned experience of the Israeli medical establishment, since in both cases, they are dealing with groups of people who are philosophically/religiously "the same.")

Thank you!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2021 03:50PM by Tevai.

Yes, Tevai, that was an interesting bit about what they did in Israel. It certainly is to be hoped that it can be duplicated in other areas. Learned experience is a good thing to take advantage of.

I can't remember another time in my life when so much uproar occurred due to resistance to recommended health measures. I find it helpful to try and understand the reasons for it. Otherwise it just frustrates me beyond endurance wondering what the hell is the matter with people.

From the article I linked above: "...hordes of maskless protesters tore down a fence police set up to stop unmasked, rule-violating worship at Grace Life church, whose pastor James Coates spent 35 days in jail after refusing to agree to abide by court orders."

Just wanted to say: What the hell is he thinking. First he encourages his flock to flout expert medical advice in the midst of a pandemic, at risk of death (theirs and/or others). Next he refuses to obey a court order?

Basic Christian principles:

1. Love your neighbour - includes not infecting them with a deadly virus, in my book.

2. Obey worldly authorities - includes not ignoring a court order, an authority appointed by the government in lawful power. Too, I'll throw in not clashing with police. Sheesh.

It is beyond belief. In every meaning of that phrase.

I've attended my share of meetings in fundy places, starting as an inexperienced, clueless teen and on up until I gave my head a shake. And, fortunately for me, I had an education in science and medicine that helped me to think, question and analyze. Some beliefs and practices can't withstand the scrutiny. (OK, I know many here would say *all* when it comes to religion, I'm sticking with *some* or even *many* for now). If one of the faith leaders anywhere I went had instructed or exhorted congregants to go against lawful authority or ignore science and medicine I would have instantly walked out. (Except for with the JWs it took me a few years even in the face of their ban on blood transfusions - they never made it a front and centre big deal though so I never heard it preached from the pulpit; it wasn't front of mind).

Too, these bozos are going to tangle with police? How ridiculous is it going to get? And making matters worse: crowds in the time of COVID, potentially spreading the virus into police ranks. From the article linked above:

"Hillier [politician/not in power] and his unmasked supporters crowded around police officers, cursing and insulting them at close range, a feature of the protests Hillier has been organizing around southern Ontario, part of an ongoing, spittle-flecked battle for freedom against what his supporters see as tyrannical health restrictions."

"Spittle-flecked battle". Good writing. Terrible behaviour.

"For what is a man.
What has he got.
If not himself,
Then he has not.

He'll say the word
Of one who feels
And not the word
Of one who kneels.

Let the record show
That I took the blows
And did it my way."
--from "My Way," Frank Sinatra, 1969

My way could be an acceptable way to live life, even inspiring depending on circumstances, but in the case of Coates, not if you're a blithering idiot.

blith·er      /ˈbliT͟Hər/

   VERB

talk in a long-winded way without making very much sense.

"I won't blither on too much about the job itself"



   NOUN

long-winded talk with no real substance.



also: Blather!



And: why does blither-blather sound better than blather-blither?


And, and: you can both blither blather as well as blather blither!

Here's Merriam-Webster for ya:

"talking foolishly, a blithering idiot; marked by or consisting of foolish or nonsensical words. I wrote short stories that were blithering messes, romantic slop.— Thomas King

Haha. I'm going to remember blithering messes. Romantic slop isn't bad either.

I'm going to look for a place to use both phrases.

Blither-blather is a great one too. The blather-blither mystery is one for the ages.

Fun with words!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2021 03:14PM by Nightingale.

This vaccine denial I find very troubling. I know many people who haven't got the vaccine, they say that it's unsafe and the government is trying to take away our freedom, our rights, and turn us into communists... Talk radio goes on and on about it, Glen Beck, Tucker Carlson, and the rest keep spouting off this everyday and the far right is lapping it up. Never mind that masks have saved us from spreading the common flu and colds and that our national health has improved so much, Fox news is against masking up the kids as they go back to school even though it's a healthy thing to do.

The political logic breaks down of course as far as I can see, They talk about freedom and the constitution, but what about the freedom of other peoples rights to not be infringed upon? Why should we be victims so a criminal can have freedom?

And none of my far right friends are protesting the receiving of extra entitlements, government stimuluses' etc. Oh that's just fine, conservatives not conserving anything. But when it comes to masking up or taking a vaccine that's when their rights are violated.

Since it is in OUR best interest to help get the vaccine hesitant people to get immunized (so the dangerous mutating forms can be prevented, for example), here’s a link describing an approach that seems to be working:

https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/08/try-this-new-technique-when-talking-to-vaccine-skeptics.html
Try this new technique when talking to vaccine skeptics
“Trust and confidence in any product — and here the vaccine is the product — starts with confidence in the process and safety.”
-Payam N., Vaccine Outreach Supervisor

While training over 1,800 vaccine outreach workers enrolled in the California Virtual Training Academy’s Vaccine Communications Training, the UCSF Center for Excellence in Primary Care developed a practical guide for engaging people who are skeptical of the COVID-19 vaccine in meaningful conversations.

When we hear skepticism, our first instinct may be to end the conversation. After all, why spend our time trying to convince someone who has made up their mind? Our second instinct may be to counter the person’s position without pausing to hear more about their perspective. Unfortunately, trying to force someone into getting the vaccine often results in defensiveness and anger.
Nicole H., a vaccine outreach worker in San Bernardino County, takes a different approach. She says, “My job is to provide education and outreach, but not to bully or pressure someone into doing what I think they should do. At the end of the day, the decision is theirs to make.”

Nicole uses the well-validated concept that arguing with someone is not an effective way to build motivation. A more useful technique is to ask questions that explore the person’s reasoning behind their decision.

We propose the HEAR technique, based on skills used in health coaching and motivational interviewing, to guide such a conversation. The HEAR technique is an acronym that stands for:

Hear: Could you tell me more about your concerns about the vaccine?

Express gratitude: Thank you for sharing that concern. You have been thinking carefully about this!

Ask about pros and cons: What would be the bad things about getting a vaccine? How about the good things?

Respond: Would it be OK to share some information about your concern?
Let’s look at a traditional way of telling someone to get vaccinated without the HEAR technique:
Old way:
Diana: Thanks for taking the time to talk today. We’re reaching out because you are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. Are you interested in receiving it?
Evelyn: I’ll pass.
Diana: Did you already get vaccinated?
Evelyn: Nope, and I’m not interested either.
Diana: It’s really important to get vaccinated! The vaccines help keep you and your community safe from COVID-19 infection!
[Immediately counters the person’s position.]
Evelyn: Right. Well, I’m just not interested.
Diana: OK, well that’s too bad. Bye.
[Hangs up without further exploration.]

Now, let’s see Diana effectively use the HEAR technique to defuse tension and respectfully offer information relevant to the person’s concerns.

New way:
Diana: Thanks for taking the time to talk today, Evelyn. My name is Diana. We’re reaching out because you are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. Are you interested in receiving the vaccine?
Evelyn: Yeah, I’ll pass.

Diana: Thanks for letting me know. Each person I talk to has a lot of things to consider when choosing to get vaccinated or not. Would it be OK to talk about what’s on your mind when you think about the COVID vaccine?

[H for hear: Acknowledges the person’s opinion and asks permission to discuss concerns.]
Evelyn: Sure. But you’re not going to change my mind!

Diana: Fair enough! It’s ultimately up to you, right?

Evelyn: Yeah, it is. OK, well, I feel like the vaccine was developed way too fast. I don’t like the idea of putting something in my body without understanding the effects.

Diana: Thank you for sharing that concern. Understanding the safety of the vaccine is important to you. Is there anything else that makes you not want to get the vaccine?

[E for express gratitude: Thank person for sharing. A for ask about pros and cons: Probes to understand the person’s “cons” to getting a vaccine.]

Evelyn: No. It really comes down to safety.

Diana: So, one reason that you don’t want to get the vaccine is your concern about safety. Are there any reasons that you might want to get it?

[A for ask about pros and cons: Asks an open-ended question to understand a person’s “pros” for getting the vaccine.]

Evelyn: Well, sure. I mean, I miss singing in the choir at my church, and I miss my grandkids.

Diana: So, on the one hand, you want to be sure that the vaccine is safe before you get it. On the other hand, you want to get back to singing in the choir and seeing your grandkids.
Evelyn: That’s right.

Diana: Would it be helpful for me to share what we know so far about safety for this vaccine? Just so you can consider it while you think about what’s best for you?

[R for respond: Asks permission to share additional information.]
Evelyn: Sure, I guess that would be OK.

If the person agrees to hear new information, that is something to celebrate! Diana could go on to share new information and assess the person’s reactions and motivations.

As demonstrated in this scenario, the HEAR technique is an easy-to-follow guide to engage patients, family, friends, and even the person in line behind you at the coffee shop in dynamic conversations about the vaccine.

These conversations, in turn, are the key to higher vaccination rates and ultimately the restoration of our social lives and the economy. As Nicole’s supervisor, Betsy T., says, “There is a lot of skepticism, and we cannot ignore it. It’s there, and we must be honest about that. Just call and talk to people. It’s as simple as that.”
Patricia Mejia and Rachel Willard-Grace collaborated on this article.

Lots of deniers and non believers here in the various Anabaptist and Calvinist communities....and the health food/alternative medicine crowd too. I know a few of that lot.