The High Price of Resistance to COVID-19 Vaccinations - Horowitz

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Rob Horowitz, MINDSETTER™

 

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President Joe Biden vaccination PHOTO: file

About 60% of COVID-19 deaths in the United States in the 11 months or so since vaccines have been widely available ---234,000 all told—could have been prevented if all adults had gotten fully vaccinated, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF).  Further, in the first 6 months of vaccine availability alone, nearly 700,000 hospitalizations could have been prevented, saving nearly $14 billion in health care costs, KFF reported.

This is the high price in avoidable deaths, preventable serious illnesses, and avertible health care costs resulting from the fact that more than 1-out-of-5 (23%) American adults have yet to receive at least one COVID-19 vaccination and about 1-out-of- 3 are not fully vaccinated defined as completing the initial two Moderna or Pfizer shots or the one J & J shot. Despite having the world’s leading economy, we lag markedly behind most of the developed world in vaccination rates. In Canada--our northern neighbor-- for example, more than 8-in-10 adults are fully vaccinated.

The stark numbers documented by KFF should be sufficiently alarming to drive home the tremendous damage that resistance to the COVID-19 vaccine, stemming in large measure from a willful campaign of disinformation, has done to our nation. But as KFF points out, these are conservative estimates. They don’t factor in the further cost in lives from not taking booster shots and only estimate the first 6 months or so of avoidable hospitalizations and corresponding hospital expenditures.  Most importantly, the pandemic has receded, but COVID-19 is still with us. As a result, the total price we are paying in lives, serious illness and treasure continues to mount. If a new more potent variant surfaces, these negative outcomes will once again accelerate.

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This all argues for redoubling our efforts to boost vaccination rates. In doing so, however, we must develop a strategy that uses trusted messengers in local communities to overcome the mountain of vaccine misinformation that has circulated and taken hold among Republicans and conservatives. As KFF noted, “Republicans make up an increasingly disproportionate share of those who remain unvaccinated and political partisanship is a stronger predictor of whether someone is vaccinated than demographic factors such as age, race, level of education, or insurance status.” Republicans comprise more than 60% of  unvaccinated American adults 

The impact of too many Fox News hosts either outright embracing skepticism about the effectiveness of vaccines and uncritically featuring anti-COVID-19 vaccination guests over and over again, combined with the spreading of outright falsehoods about the COVID-19 vaccines on right wing websites and amplifying them on social media can be seen in the fact that Republicans are much more likely to believe false statements about the vaccines and COVID-19 than the rest of the electorate.  “Nearly half (46%) of Republicans compared to just 14% of Democrats believe or are unsure about four or more misstatements about COVID-19,” documented KFF. “Strikingly, 84% of Republicans believe or are unsure whether the government is exaggerating the number of COVID-19 deaths by including deaths due to other causes, compared to just one-third of Democrats.”

Not surprisingly, believing falsehoods about the vaccine and COVID-19 is highly correlated with remaining unvaccinated. Enlisting trusted local doctors, hospitals and religious leaders and facilitating labor-intensive one-on-one conversations is essential to breaking through the sea of misinformation that continues to circulate.  Incorporating COVID vaccines into a seasonal strategy along with flu shots may turn out to be a fruitful path going forward.

The other easier and still highly important task ahead, however, is to persuade people who have only received one shot to complete the regimen and to up the number of people that are being boosted. Receiving booster shots are especially of value to older and immunocompromised people who are at a higher risk of more serious illness and death.  Generally speaking, it will take less work to convince someone who has already been vaccinated to get more vaccinations than it will take to convince someone who is still unvaccinated --when vaccines have been widely available for nearly a year-- to get their first COVID shot.   The insufficiently vaccinated are the ripest targets of opportunity.

As we close in on 1 million COVID-19 deaths, the same kind of disinformation efforts that plague our democracy, caused us to pay a higher price than we had to in avoidable deaths, hospitalizations and health care costs. We must take this lesson to heart, learning from our mistakes and developing proactive public health strategies that for the next pandemic factor in that there may be nothing more important than effectively combating disinformation before it sets in. That means, among other components, being ready with a broad-based number of influencers that span the ideological spectrum on day one.

Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits, businesses, and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.


 

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