The Maimonides Geriatric Centre was recently hit really bad with COVID. The vaccine has arrived for its employees… but only 35-40% say they want it. https://www.lapresse.ca/covid-19/2020-12-15/centre-hospitalier-geriatrique-maimonides/les-employes-hesitants-face-au-vaccin.php

The main reason La Presse reports on: the vaccine feels rushed and they don’t want to be guinea pigs. As vaccines were moving to clinical trial stages, I kept hearing of “vaccination campaigns” and, in my mind, it sounded like “ad campaign,” PSAs about the vaccine. But no.

So now we have a vaccine rolling out but what does the population know about it? What it can read in the media (typically good coverage) but also what they find on social media (scaremongering, half-truths, cherry-picked data, decontextualized side effects from the trial).

Is there a campaign underway in Quebec to educate the public about how this vaccine was created and tested and what the results of Pfizer’s trial were? I’m not seeing anything. I mean, we saw this problem coming months ago. Is there anything??

Vaccine hesitancy thrives in knowledge gaps and gets fed by misinformation. The scientific achievement of a robust and safe RNA vaccine means little if too few people are willing to roll up their sleeve to accept it.