Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach to get people who are skeptical of the COVID-19 vaccine to get their shots, more efforts should be made to understand why people are refusing the shots instead of labeling them as anti-vaxxers or saying they're entrenched in their views, Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told Newsmax Monday.
"We should understand what questions people have," Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said on Newsmax's "John Bachman Now." "We should understand what concerns people have, and we should address them and help people figure out how to become ready to get vaccinated."
There have been some increased vaccinations occurring in states where the COVID levels are high, and in cases where a person who has seen an unvaccinated loved one die from the disease, and people who are now considering the vaccine after months of resisting it would do well to speak with their own doctors about their health status.
"If people are immunocompromised, the vaccines may not work as well," said Jha. "If you're going through chemotherapy, vaccines are still safe, but it's still really important to talk to your doctor about it."
Pharmacists are also well-trained and can be a good source of information on the vaccination, particularly if a person is on certain medications, said Jha.
"Oftentimes your pharmacist is easier to speak with than your doctor and easy to get a hold of," said Jha, adding that pharmacies have become like "frontline healthcare workers" after giving so many people their vaccines.
But overall, at the end of the day, nobody will get vaccinated because they got bullied or pushed into it, said Jha.
"They're going to get there because they feel confident in being able to do this and become convinced that it's good for them," said Jha. "That happens through conversations and it happens with conversations with people they trust, and that's why I think talking to your physician, your pharmacist, a nurse at your clinic, those are the kinds of conversations that really make a difference now."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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