Changing the Conversation about COVID to Get More People Vaccinated
This article talks about the type of messaging that is most effective at changing minds about vaccination and how we can provide that messaging through discussion about long COVID-19.
How can we help stop the spread of COVID-19? The question isn’t so much about what we need to stop the spread, we know we need people to get vaccinated, wear masks, and practice social distance, but how do we convince people whose minds seem to be made up against doing any of these things?
The misinformation and political rhetoric have made this feel like an impossible task. We need our patients to listen to us, and we can feel defeated when they would rather believe a radio host than their health care providers. Giving up is not the answer. We need to change the way we speak about COVID-19 and the benefits of getting vaccinated.
The messaging everyone has heard over and over again has been about full hospitals and ICU’s. We have talked about overworked and exhausted healthcare providers and the danger for patients this creates. We have begged people to wear masks to stop the spread and protect their community. We have told the heartbreaking stories of people who are asking for the vaccine just before they are intubated, and of the COVID-19 deniers that reverse their stance when they become seriously ill. It baffles us that, with all this information, people continue to deny that COVID-19 is a problem, or refuse to follow public health guidelines. It’s not personal to them, it doesn’t affect them, and it’s not a problem until it becomes personal.
When we talk to our patients we need to make it personal. Research on messaging to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates found that emphasizing personal benefits of vaccination increased participants' intention to get vaccinated more than any other type of messaging1. One way we can make the message personal is by talking about the long-term consequences of COVID-19 infection. There is more than ICU’s, and ventilators to talk about with our patients. How many times have you heard someone say they don’t have to worry about COVID because they are young, or healthy? In the context of severe illness and hospitalization, they are probably right. The majority of people infected with COVID-19 experience mild illness.
Of course anyone can experience severe illness, but for younger people, people without pre-existing conditions the threat of hospitalization or death is not personal. We need to educate our patients about the long-term effects of COVID-19 on their personal health. A study completed by the University of Arizona Health Sciences found that 68% of patients with mild or moderate covid experienced long COVID, only slightly less than those hospitalized with COVID2. Long COVID or Post COVID is defined as experiencing one or more symptoms lasting four or more weeks3. The most commonly reported symptoms from the University of Arizona study were: fatigue, shortness of breath, brain fog, and stress or anxiety4.
The following is a list of the most common post-COVID symptoms5:
Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
Tiredness or fatigue
Symptoms that get worse after physical or mental activities (also known as post-exertional malaise)
Difficulty thinking or concentrating (sometimes referred to as “brain fog”)
Cough
Chest or stomach pain
Headache
Fast-beating or pounding heart (also known as heart palpitations)
Joint or muscle pain
Pins-and-needles feeling
Diarrhea
Sleep problems
Fever
Dizziness on standing (lightheadedness)
Rash
Mood changes
Change in smell or taste
Changes in menstrual period cycles
While there are limitations to the data, it seems the prevalence of these symptoms is high and may affect a large number of people. It remains to be seen how long these symptoms may last and how COVID-19 infection may impact a person’s overall health. It is important for healthcare providers to relay this information to patients who may not know that COVID 19 may have a long-term impact on their health or cause disability. Perhaps then we can change some people’s minds about getting vaccinated to protect themselves from infection and the long-term consequences of that infection.
Like what...like the remaining nurses being irritated that their qualified and skilled coworker chose to lose their job rather than vaccinate...which leaves them shorter staffedthanbefore?
Yep, pretty much. They shouldn't be employed or around any patient anyway.
23 hours ago, toomuchbaloney said:
Those nurses don't have to adjust their emotional responses out of deference for the emotional state of the unvaccinated
Their emotional state is the effect, the cause is the mandate. Did they really think that when some nurses said "OK I'll accept the consequences" there will not be an effect? So yeah they do have to adjust their emotional responses.
23 hours ago, toomuchbaloney said:
emotional state of the unvaccinated. The unvaccinated certainly didn't consider the coworkers (or patients)when refusing to vaccinate
Both are affected, the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, with the mandates. You say the vaccinated have the right to their feelings because they have to work short staff. Yet you dismiss the feelings of unvaccinated nurses.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
1 hour ago, DesiDani said:
Both are affected, the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, with the mandates. You say the vaccinated have the right to their feelings because they have to work short staff. Yet you dismiss the feelings of unvaccinated nurses
That's right. I diminish the feelings of the unvaccinated. Their feelings shouldn't be the primary consideration in this discussion, yet page after page of comments in these threads are fixated on how the unvaccinated feel about the mandates or the criticism or the messaging. I no longer care what feelings are causing them to refuse vaccination at this point. Their reasoning and excuses remain unfounded and debunked. Coddling their ignorance and indoctrination isn't changing their minds, if you don't believe that just listen to Aaron Rodger's "interview" where he's allowed to vent and publish his "beliefs" and misunderstandings about the disease and vaccination. Trying to understand and be sympathetic to his ignorance has now cost that team and the NFL as his misinformation begins to include fabricated statements by NFL physicians about the vaccines. That's just nonsense. But the fellow gambling with covid wants everyone to know how he feels about it as he gobbles up monoclonal antibodies and ivermectin.
I'll let the clinicians who have to deal with the unvaccinated in the clinical setting worry about their feelings. I'm under no obligation to care more about them than they care about me...because their unvaccinated stance says that only they matter.
That's right. I diminish the feelings of the unvaccinated. Their feelings shouldn't be the primary consideration in this discussion, yet page after page of comments in these threads are fixated on how the unvaccinated feel about the mandates or the criticism or the messaging.
And yet, there is the subject of this question asked by the OP. So like it or not their feelings irrational or not will eventually have to be considered, in order to get more and more people vaccinated. The mandates will work to an extent and then they will fail to work. People will get jobs from employers who don't have mandates. Not to mention after a person lost their due to a mandate, do you think that rhetoric like yours is going to convince people to get vaccinated?
So what is the point of this thread? Seriously? Eventually people will have to consider the unvaccinated concerns.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
19 minutes ago, DesiDani said:
And yet, there is the subject of this question asked by the OP. So like it or not their feelings irrational or not will eventually have to be considered, in order to get more and more people vaccinated. The mandates will work to an extent and then they will fail to work. People will get jobs from employers who don't have mandates. Not to mention after a person lost their due to a mandate, do you think that rhetoric like yours is going to convince people to get vaccinated?
So what is the point of this thread? Seriously? Eventually people will have to consider the unvaccinated concerns.
Mandates work to increase vaccine uptake...that's already established. The "feelings" which prevent the unvaccinated from getting vaccinated have been considered from the beginning. The irrational fears, twisted science and crazy data analysis has been regurgitated and heard again and again and again.
You talk about the mandates as if the intention of the mandates is to punish the unvaccinated. Of course, the purpose of the mandates is to increase vaccination rates so that we can get past the pandemic.
No we don't believe that the rhetoric which is unsympathetic to the unvaccinated will cause them to get vaccinated, we're simply telling them that their excuses are wrong. The point of the thread is pretty clear. Seriously? Do you believe the unvaccinated have been quietly suffering and no one has any idea why they are refusing the pandemic ending vaccines? Or do you think that the unvaccinated are victims?
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
53 minutes ago, DesiDani said:
And yet, there is the subject of this question asked by the OP. So like it or not their feelings irrational or not will eventually have to be considered, in order to get more and more people vaccinated. The mandates will work to an extent and then they will fail to work. People will get jobs from employers who don't have mandates. Not to mention after a person lost their due to a mandate, do you think that rhetoric like yours is going to convince people to get vaccinated?
So what is the point of this thread? Seriously? Eventually people will have to consider the unvaccinated concerns.
Naw. The unvaxxed had and have absolutely zero concern for our feeling or concerns so I don't feel any obligation to care about theirs.
All the data I've seen indicates that mandates are very effective at getting people vaccinated. My hope is that we will have more and more of them so we may reclaim the freedom the anti vaxxers have deprived us of.
And yet, there is the subject of this question asked by the OP. So like it or not their feelings irrational or not will eventually have to be considered, in order to get more and more people vaccinated. The mandates will work to an extent and then they will fail to work. People will get jobs from employers who don't have mandates. Not to mention after a person lost their due to a mandate, do you think that rhetoric like yours is going to convince people to get vaccinated?
So what is the point of this thread? Seriously? Eventually people will have to consider the unvaccinated concerns.
We have done nothing but consider and address the concerns of the voluntarily unvaccinated: over and over and over from the beginning, yet the data and reasoning are flat ignored by a group that consists, in part, of the same folk who proudly flaunted bright red “ **** your feelings” T-shirts and joked about snowflakes, safe spaces and drinking liberal tears. But we’re supposed to support and empathize and avoid making them feel stupid? Really?
Properly enforced mandates are working, and will continue to work to increase vaccination rates to a level that will provide protection for those who cannot be vaccinated. The voluntarily unvaccinated are, at this point, on their own.
I don’t know if you noticed, but those rural/small town/Midwestern values about which you waxed so poetic earlier in the thread all had to do with self-reliance and personal responsibility for getting one’s needs met. Doing for oneself rather than expecting others to do for you. That is NOT what the voluntarily unvaccinated are doing. They demand that the rest of us defer to their “rights” while they take major risks with their own and others’ health, then whine about the consequences of their choices and demand that we take care of them, including the billions in costs that are being dumped on taxpayers. Does that sound like self reliance to you? More like exploitation.
The irrational fears, twisted science and crazy data analysis has been regurgitated and heard again and again and again.
Those irrationals fears won't be quelled with hostile, unsympathetic rhetoric. People will just resist even more.
2 hours ago, toomuchbaloney said:
You talk about the mandates as if the intention of the mandates is to punish the unvaccinate
2 hours ago, toomuchbaloney said:
You talk about the mandates as if the intention of the mandates is to punish the unvaccinated
Well that is how it is being interpreted, especially by those who lost their jobs.
The thread ask how to get more people vaccinated. The very same people you want to compel to get vaccinated, are the same unvaccinated people that you will not listen to their whys. You can't convince people to do anything unless they feel like their concerns are being addressed. If you can't take the time to do that, then yes what is the point of the question?
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
1 hour ago, DesiDani said:
4 hours ago, toomuchbaloney said:
The irrational fears, twisted science and crazy data analysis has been regurgitated and heard again and again and again.
Those irrationals fears won't be quelled with hostile, unsympathetic rhetoric. People will just resist even more.
Are you assigning purpose to my words or the words of others? I certainly haven't suggested or implied that my objective was to get past their belligerent resistance. I have flat out told you that I'm simply ridiculing and pushing back against their self important nonsense...you aren't even doing that...you are coddling their feelings. How's that going for you so far?
1 hour ago, DesiDani said:
Well that is how it is being interpreted, especially by those who lost their jobs.
Those people losing their jobs have terrible judgment and discernment skills, which is why they interpret vaccination as a loss of freedom...you must be buying into their whining about how they are victims. They are victims of a con and that's why they aren't vaccinated.
1 hour ago, DesiDani said:
The thread ask how to get more people vaccinated. The very same people you want to compel to get vaccinated, are the same unvaccinated people that you will not listen to their whys. You can't convince people to do anything unless they feel like their concerns are being addressed. If you can't take the time to do that, then yes what is the point of the question?
Bull crap...our media is filled with the "why's" of the intentionally unvaccinated. There isn't an original or compelling argument among them, just nonsense and propaganda.
I'm not trying to get the unvaccinated to comply...I'm countering their foolish arguments and emotional excuses in these threads without regard for their feelings. I'm pushing against those who insist that we must be respectful of the modern day Typhoid Mary's...like you...I'm not required to hold the hands of the irrational who put our communities at risk with their indoctrinated thinking.
Those irrationals fears won't be quelled with hostile, unsympathetic rhetoric. People will just resist even more.
Well that is how it is being interpreted, especially by those who lost their jobs.
The thread ask how to get more people vaccinated. The very same people you want to compel to get vaccinated, are the same unvaccinated people that you will not listen to their whys. You can't convince people to do anything unless they feel like their concerns are being addressed. If you can't take the time to do that, then yes what is the point of the question?
I still call BS. How many times do we need to present the same information and answer the same questions before it becomes obvious that the voluntarily unvaccinated are more interested in owning the libs than anything else?
Take a look st the responses of those arguing against vaccination when misinformation, skewed data and illogical arguments are countered. Invariably, they fall back on snark and personal insults. Or they completely ignore what was just presented as they leapfrog over to another talking point.
Remember about the definition of insanity?
To me, reframing the conversation means discussing how to protect ourselves from the physical, social and economic damage done by the voluntarily unvaccinated.
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
1 hour ago, DesiDani said:
Quote
Those irrationals fears won't be quelled with hostile, unsympathetic rhetoric. People will just resist even more.
Don't care. As you said yourself. Thier fears are irrational. We have no responsibility to address the irrational.
Quote
Well that is how it is being interpreted, especially by those who lost their jobs.
No, because we are talking about people who are equally dishonest people of low moral character, and especially susceptible to fake propaganda and lacking in critical thinking abilities,
1 hour ago, DesiDani said:
Quote
The thread ask how to get more people vaccinated. The very same people you want to compel to get vaccinated, are the same unvaccinated people that you will not listen to their whys. You can't convince people to do anything unless they feel like their concerns are being addressed. If you can't take the time to do that, then yes what is the point of the question?
The question has been answered. Mandates are how we get more people vaccinated.
We already tried to convince them and its failed to reach the hard corps of the freedom haters.
We have no responsibility to address their irrational and stupid concerns.
Vaccine mandates are the most effective way of reclaiming the body autonomy and freedom the anti vaxxers have deprived us of.
We already do have mandates, both for vaccination and forced treatment. That’s why most healthcare workers have never seen a case of smallpox, tetorifice, polio or active tuberculosis (to name a few).
DesiDani
742 Posts
Yep, pretty much. They shouldn't be employed or around any patient anyway.
Their emotional state is the effect, the cause is the mandate. Did they really think that when some nurses said "OK I'll accept the consequences" there will not be an effect? So yeah they do have to adjust their emotional responses.
Both are affected, the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, with the mandates. You say the vaccinated have the right to their feelings because they have to work short staff. Yet you dismiss the feelings of unvaccinated nurses.