Task Force discusses reaching out to unvaccinated
Since Pine Island COVID-19 Task Force facilitator Eric McCrea will be leaving the island, it has been decided Dr. James Koopman, will take on the role of heading up the Task Force.
Dr. Daniel Hanley suggested the Task Force structure future meetings with a focus on remaining helpful to the community. While Koopman agrees with the idea, he maintains the current priority should be on vaccinations. Hanley explained that he has had some experience with his patients concern over long-term affects of the COVID-19 vaccinations.
“We can’t predict the long-term affects, simply because there’s no data,” Hanley said, adding that the vaccine will eventually serve as a booster shot of some kind, because the immunization itself won’t last long in the body. “I don’t really see offhand how our genetic data would be changed by these vaccines, and that’s one reason people are worried. If we can start to address some of people’s concerns who don’t want the shot just yet, maybe that will be helpful. I’m trying to understand where they’re coming from.”
Koopman said the number one priority for dealing with people who don’t want to receive the vaccination will be to listen to their stories.
“It’s not a matter of arguing with them because arguing isn’t an effective route,” Koopman said.
Member Martha Huard said it’s important to get the point across that the vaccinations are not simply experimental, which she says is a growing claim among those who are opting against being vaccinated.
“It’s a phase four trial at this point,” said Huard. “Being experimental is a different thing entirely.”
As a group, the Task Force would like to address community questions and concerns of anyone currently wondering if they should get a COVID vaccination. The decision to do this in a public arena or online has not yet been determined.
Beacon of Hope community program director Nancy Buthman said she has shared with a number of people the role of immunizations in light of the danger of virus mutation, with great success.
Huard pointed out that vaccinations are a major preventative measure taken to halt the spread of COVID-19 through continuous mutations.
“The only way we’re going to stop the variants from coming is to stop the spread, or they’re going to keep happening,” said Huard. “If you get COVID you may not die, but you may become a host and it can learn to do new things inside you and change itself … and then it turns into a whole new ballgame. If we stop it in its tracks, then it can’t keep doing that.”
Fellow Task Force member Mary Lewis Sheehan explained that although people are concerned that they don’t know the long-term affects yet of COVID vaccines, conversely, we have already seen some long-term affects of the COVID virus on some who have had it.
“The answer to the long-term consequences is that it’s not going to stick around in your body,” said Huard. “It’s gone, just like a flu vaccine.”