A
nurse last month prepares a shot to be administered as part of a
study of a possible COVID-19 vaccine developed by the National
Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc. | Hans Pennink/AP Photos
As many as half of all Americans say they won’t get a
coronavirus vaccine. If we hope to end this deadly pandemic, an
aggressive public education campaign stressing the safety of
vaccination is essential.
Early next year, scientists tell us, Americans can expect to
hear that a safe and effective vaccine against COVID-19 soon will
be available.
When that happens — and the nation’s top infectious disease
expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has said he is cautiously optimistic on
the timeline for 2021 — it will be the best news possible for our
pandemic-weary country.
All of us are waiting for a breakthrough that will allow daily
life to return to some semblance of normal once again: to go back
to movies, ball games and concerts or host dinner parties without
fear of catching or spreading the coronavirus.
Life may not be completely “normal” for a long time, but a
reliable vaccine is essential to the fight. Masks and social
distancing can do only so much. “A vaccine will be the strongest
thing we have against the disease,” as Dr. Karen Krueger of
Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine told
us.
Chicago plays key role
Chicagoans can be proud that our city is already playing a key
role in the vaccine race. Thousands of people have signed up as
potential volunteers for clinical trials at Northwestern and the
University of Illinois at Chicago of two separate vaccines,
expected to begin later this month.
Both vaccines have shown promising results in earlier testing
and have reached Phase 3, the final stage of testing during which a
vaccine is administered to thousands of volunteers nationwide
before it can be approved, potentially, by the Food and Drug
Administration.
The UIC trial involves a vaccine developed by the biotech giant
Moderna, which on Tuesday reached a
$1.5 billion deal with the Trump administration to produce 100
million doses. Northwestern will test a vaccine developed by
pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.
Altogether, more than 165
vaccines are in various stages of development worldwide, with
30 now undergoing human trials.
“I’m very optimistic, with all these vaccines going into
trials, that something will be effective,” UIC’s Dr. Richard M.
Novak, who will head the trials there, told us.
Americans wary
But even the most effective vaccine will be useless if too few
people decide to get the shot. And millions of us — from
25% to
50% of all Americans, according to several surveys conducted
since May — have already decided against it.
One
survey found an especially troubling statistic: African
Americans, who are at a particularly high risk of severe illness or
death from COVID-19, still were far more likely than whites or
Hispanics to report that they wouldn’t get vaccinated.
Clearly, America needs a public education campaign to build
confidence in a vaccine, especially among Black Americans. We hold
out little hope that the Trump administration will see the need —
yet another on a long list of reasons to vote Donald Trump out in
November.
“We’ve got to change our government,” Novak said. “Get
someone in charge who listens to science and is able to put forth a
consistent effort against misinformation.”
No amount of education, we fear, will convince the strident
anti-vaccine movement. They don’t listen to scientists any more
than Trump does.
But a smart, well-planned campaign that outlines the rigorous
steps required to approve any vaccine — and the science behind
vaccines in general — could go a long way toward convincing
others who are willing to listen and learn.
A campaign could reach those like this 56-year-old woman who
told pollsters: “I am not an anti-vaxxer. [But] to get a
COVID-19 vaccine within a year or two … causes me to fear that it
won’t be widely tested as to side effects.”
So Americans need to know this: We are not Russia.
Emphasizing safety over speed
In its rush to be “first” with a COVID-19 vaccine, President
Vladimir Putin announced Tuesday that Russia will begin
distributing an unproven vaccine this fall, before large-scale
human trials are complete.
Scientists
widely condemn the move as “reckless.”
“I realize this is a pandemic,” Northwestern’s Krueger
said, “But I don’t think that’s a reason to skip over what we
know is safe.”
Krueger and other experts insist that the FDA’s standards and
the vaccine approval process overall will not allow the same to
happen here.
Rushing the process, at any rate, would be self-defeating.
Imagine releasing an unproven vaccine too early — and seeing
thousands of people suffer severe unexpected side effects.
“We’re going by the same process and standard we would
normally,” Krueger said.
To build public trust, better safe than first.
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