Do You Trust the H1N1 Vaccine?
America has a huge distrust in the H1N1 vaccine¹²³… or just any vaccine at all. Why is there such a distrust in government? Does it spawn from the 1976 swine flu vaccine that ’caused’ 500 people to get (and 25 to die from) Guillain-Barre syndrome?¹ Doubt it. Current polls show that people refusing the shot are of the younger population… those not likely to remember the 1976 swine flu pandemic.¹ If I had a guess, I would assume that people distrust the news media, health organizations, and the government. Who are these people telling us what is good for us and what is not? Do you trust ‘them’ or do you trust what you hear from your peers on social media outlets (many of which have similar fears to your own)?
Something needs to be done to cure this distrust. I feel health organizations need to communicate on a level that everyone can interact with, instead of having authoritative position telling us what we are ’advised’ to do. I have been trying to find individuals who work at major health organizations on Twitter… and I haven’t found any yet. Yes, I know their organizations have Twitter outlets that spit out general media filtered messages that come through the pipeline, but who are these people?
This is why my thesis is focusing on what people are saying about the H1N1 & seasonal vaccine. What are the positive things, and more importantly what are the negative things? By understanding what the population is thinking, we can truly create a “listen-first” campaign. Not just telling people what they NEED to do, but relating to their fears with a real voice.
It is a wonderful time to be a Masters of Public Health student. For the first time we can truly listen to what our ‘target population’ thinks about health topics. As the popularity social media increases, along with the research tools we can analyze these messages, we are closer to better serving our population.
How about the recent debate about the link between vaccines and autism? I think that has also contributed a lot to people’s recent mistrust in vaccines.
Then, there’s also the Tuskegee syphilis experiment… it will take long for trust to be rebuilt after that.
| Posted 2 years, 4 months agoYou have very good points. It will be interesting to see if anyone will mention those reasons for not getting the vaccine. If people do have these fears, there needs to be a message adressing these concerns… soon!
| Posted 2 years, 4 months ago