Hi, Dr. Schmidtke. Your digest has been such a lifesaver for me during these tumultuous times. My husband is a doctor and is seeing the first-hand effects of this virus and continued vaccine hesitancy and mask angst. Your words, expertise, and digest have helped me write letters to get one of our children's schools to require masks. Our headmaster has even quoted you now in some of his messages! I consistently tell people masks and vaccines are medical, not political. I work hard to listen to people's concerns and then to calmly answer them with facts and science. It's been draining, but it's also been rewarding. Just today I had a former babysitter of ours who is pregnant with her third child tell me I've helped to convince her to get vaccinated. I can't imagine how exhausting your work is - but hopefully, it's rewarding as well.
At any rate, here's what I'm struggling with right now. I know how busy you are, but I have some friends and people on social media who follow me who are genuinely trying to sift through the heaps of information (and misinformation!) out there and make a prudent choice for their families. I am trying to address their vaccine hesitancy in charity and with facts. One argument I've heard several times is how vaccinations were initially billed as a public health measure (which they still are in my view, of course), but that now people are seeing that the vaccines only reduce one's own symptoms and that people with the vaccines are still spreading the virus, so why bother taking the risk of getting vaccinated? These same people, unfortunately, think the risk of vaccines is a real threat and have misguided fears and seek out YouTubers and Instagram influencers who incorrectly use VAERS data to scare people. Well, I've tried to explain when they question the efficacy of the covid vaccines that while there are breakthrough infections, they still remain quite rare. These same people don't understand why I'm wearing a mask even though vaccinated (or sadly why people mask-up at all). I explain that I'm currently wearing a mask as an extra mitigation measure since delta is proving to be highly transmissible. One individual told me her research has shown that there's only a negligible reduction in transmission among vaccinated individuals and she asked me for research saying otherwise. She feels getting the covid vaccine remains a mostly a personal protective decision and only potentially protects others while the individual assumes all the risk of the procedure. I've tried to explain how increasing vaccine rates reduces transmission and the chance the virus will continue to mutate. I've also offered CDC statistics on how effective the vaccine has been and how rare side effects are to assuage her concerns about the "risk of the procedure." She also doesn't seem to grasp that reducing symptoms - even if the vaccine doesn't always block infection - is still a major feat and is dramatically reducing death. She wrote, "Without a sterilizing vaccine, the virus will never be eradicated, which makes it seem less of a community-driven decision and more personal as well. Personally, my primary care doc, an MD, said he cannot recommend it for me. So I'm genuinely trying to figure out honest to goodness research because I know science is changing and new research continues to be performed, and I want to be sure I am being a charitable Christian while also making wise stewardship decisions for my own family's bodies. Does he have any insight or research articles I can analyze?" I'm not a virologist (obviously!) or a doctor (though my husband is!). I was, however, a medical journalist for nearly a decade (before switching writing gears after becoming a mom) and I truly want to help bust vaccine myths and rewrite the false narratives circulating around. I know some people are going to be very hard to ever sway, but people like this woman are willing to listen. So is there any chance you could provide me with some links, research, etc. that would help answer her (somewhat convoluted) question? I understand if you don't have the time to address this, but maybe even another expert reader might be able to offer me some resources. Thanks for the tireless work you're doing. You truly are a lifesaving hero!
Thanks for calling out ventilation. That gets so little focus and, I feel, could be a significant improvement in our response (just compare the relative safety of outdoors and, dare I say, airplanes). Even a single open window can help, especially since the dose makes the poison for this disease. And, if we get serious about ventilation in the long run we may even reduce the burden of other (current or future) respiratory viruses. It also empowers individuals, who can test how risky a particular room is with a personal co2 detector.
Hi, Dr. Schmidtke. Your digest has been such a lifesaver for me during these tumultuous times. My husband is a doctor and is seeing the first-hand effects of this virus and continued vaccine hesitancy and mask angst. Your words, expertise, and digest have helped me write letters to get one of our children's schools to require masks. Our headmaster has even quoted you now in some of his messages! I consistently tell people masks and vaccines are medical, not political. I work hard to listen to people's concerns and then to calmly answer them with facts and science. It's been draining, but it's also been rewarding. Just today I had a former babysitter of ours who is pregnant with her third child tell me I've helped to convince her to get vaccinated. I can't imagine how exhausting your work is - but hopefully, it's rewarding as well.
At any rate, here's what I'm struggling with right now. I know how busy you are, but I have some friends and people on social media who follow me who are genuinely trying to sift through the heaps of information (and misinformation!) out there and make a prudent choice for their families. I am trying to address their vaccine hesitancy in charity and with facts. One argument I've heard several times is how vaccinations were initially billed as a public health measure (which they still are in my view, of course), but that now people are seeing that the vaccines only reduce one's own symptoms and that people with the vaccines are still spreading the virus, so why bother taking the risk of getting vaccinated? These same people, unfortunately, think the risk of vaccines is a real threat and have misguided fears and seek out YouTubers and Instagram influencers who incorrectly use VAERS data to scare people. Well, I've tried to explain when they question the efficacy of the covid vaccines that while there are breakthrough infections, they still remain quite rare. These same people don't understand why I'm wearing a mask even though vaccinated (or sadly why people mask-up at all). I explain that I'm currently wearing a mask as an extra mitigation measure since delta is proving to be highly transmissible. One individual told me her research has shown that there's only a negligible reduction in transmission among vaccinated individuals and she asked me for research saying otherwise. She feels getting the covid vaccine remains a mostly a personal protective decision and only potentially protects others while the individual assumes all the risk of the procedure. I've tried to explain how increasing vaccine rates reduces transmission and the chance the virus will continue to mutate. I've also offered CDC statistics on how effective the vaccine has been and how rare side effects are to assuage her concerns about the "risk of the procedure." She also doesn't seem to grasp that reducing symptoms - even if the vaccine doesn't always block infection - is still a major feat and is dramatically reducing death. She wrote, "Without a sterilizing vaccine, the virus will never be eradicated, which makes it seem less of a community-driven decision and more personal as well. Personally, my primary care doc, an MD, said he cannot recommend it for me. So I'm genuinely trying to figure out honest to goodness research because I know science is changing and new research continues to be performed, and I want to be sure I am being a charitable Christian while also making wise stewardship decisions for my own family's bodies. Does he have any insight or research articles I can analyze?" I'm not a virologist (obviously!) or a doctor (though my husband is!). I was, however, a medical journalist for nearly a decade (before switching writing gears after becoming a mom) and I truly want to help bust vaccine myths and rewrite the false narratives circulating around. I know some people are going to be very hard to ever sway, but people like this woman are willing to listen. So is there any chance you could provide me with some links, research, etc. that would help answer her (somewhat convoluted) question? I understand if you don't have the time to address this, but maybe even another expert reader might be able to offer me some resources. Thanks for the tireless work you're doing. You truly are a lifesaving hero!
Thanks for calling out ventilation. That gets so little focus and, I feel, could be a significant improvement in our response (just compare the relative safety of outdoors and, dare I say, airplanes). Even a single open window can help, especially since the dose makes the poison for this disease. And, if we get serious about ventilation in the long run we may even reduce the burden of other (current or future) respiratory viruses. It also empowers individuals, who can test how risky a particular room is with a personal co2 detector.