As the pandemic rages on, skepticism around vaccines rages with it. According to a recently published article in the New England Journal of Medicine, society may have a lesson or two to learn from the tobacco wars when it comes to overcoming vaccination resistance.
“Covid-19 will soon have killed 1 million Americans. When vaccines first became available in late 2020, surveys indicated that about one-third of U.S. adults were keen to be vaccinated, 15% expressed strong resistance to vaccination (a proportion that has stayed constant), and the remainder didn’t harbor strong ideological resistance. About 27% of U.S. adults remain unvaccinated.” 1
The authors surmise that, like with tobacco and its negative impact on society, a continuous press campaign in support of vaccines is the only way to go in terms of convincing more and more people to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
“Freedom of choice remains; people can still smoke cigarettes and decline vaccinations. But the roadmap drawn by tobacco-control efforts shows that the public mindset can be tilted toward public health and social good. With vaccination, this work shouldn’t take decades; it needs to begin immediately.” 1
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Disclaimers
- The material in these reviews is from various public open access sources, meant for educational and informational purposes only
- Any personal opinions expressed are those of only the author(s) and are not intended to represent the position of any organization(s)
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References
- Bazell, R., Koh, H., & Bloom, B. R. (2022). The Tobacco Wars’ Lessons for the Vaccination Wars. New England Journal of Medicine, 386(23), 2159–2161. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmp2202618
