Why A Vaccine Might Not End the Pandemic
By: Guy D. Mccardle
Tags: Covid 19, Wellness, Fear, Pandemic, Vaccines

Why A Vaccine Might Not End the Pandemic

Will fear ensure the spread of the disease?

Image courtesy of theglobeandmail.com

My five-year-old self stepped on a rusty old nail as I was running around outside shoeless. Mom always insisted that I wear shoes outside. There was a good reason for that; this hurt like hell.

“Mom!”, I yelled from the yard, “I just stepped on an old nail!”

“Come here and let me see it,” she predictably replied.

She saw the blood oozing from the puncture wound on my tender foot.

“Show me what you stepped on.”, she said. I showed her.

That thing must have been in the ground for months; there was a coat of rust on it that you could brush off with your finger.

“That’s it. I’m taking you to the doctor. You’ll probably need a shot.”

Why did she have to say that? She knew I hated shots. Hated them with a furious passion unknown to most five-year-olds.

Fast forward to the pediatrician’s office. Dr. Wilson didn’t seem to like kids. I had no idea why he chose his specialty. Perhaps he didn’t know either.

“You need a shot,” he said in a gruff voice as his nurse prepared an ancient-looking syringe. The needle looked to be longer than my fingers.

I planned my exit strategy. I was going to bolt for the exam room door, make a hard left into the waiting room, then run out of the building, probably to be hit by an oncoming car as I crossed the street.

The doctor sensed my impending departure and told his nurse to hold on to me. She had me by the arms because this sucker was going in my thigh. Nightmare of nightmares.

“Mom, you better hold on to him too. I don’t want him moving around”.

I abandoned my plan to bolt and tensed up my leg. Ol’ doc Wilson stuck the needle in there like it was a dart, and I yelled out in pain. It was only many years later that I learned injections don’t hurt if you relax as much as possible before you get them.

Needle Phobia

The good news today is that there is a promising COVID vaccine out there that could be ready for mass use in the near future. The bad news is that lots of us might not be willing to get the shot (more precisely, a series of two injections spaced 21 days apart).

Lieutenant General Gustave Perna, the Army officer tasked with the logistics of storing and distributing the COVID-19 vaccine, said in a recent 60 Minutes (yes, that show is still on TV) interview:

“My worst nightmare is that we get vaccines to the American people, and they don’t take them. Shame on us.”

Don’t be surprised if mass numbers of Americans refuse the COVID-19 vaccine we’ve been waiting so long for. If that happens, it certainly won’t be General Perna’s fault.

I’ve learned to overcome my fear of needles, but that’s not true of everyone. Millions of Americans are frightened at even the idea of getting a shot. Recent studies show that 63% of those born in 2000 or later have a severe fear of needles.

There has been a marked increase in recent years of trypanophobia: an extreme fear of needles or injections. Remember that word; you’ll be hearing it again and again in the upcoming months.

Sixty Minutes also interviewed Judith Persichilli, the health commissioner of New Jersey. She told them that even healthcare professionals may be affected by fear of needles.

In a survey of 2,000 physicians and nurses, they found that only 60 percent of doctors and just 40 percent of nurses would agree to be vaccinated.

Studies on the causes of needle phobia managed to dig up the common causes of the fear. Often, the source was a traumatic “needle event” around five years of age. I could have told you that.

A 2010 study examined needle anxiety in pre-teens. Of the 120 children screened, 114 said they had needle anxiety. In the adult population, up to 10% of adults may faint at the prospect of getting an injection. We get it, lots of people don’t want to get shots.

How phobias may prolong the pandemic

Trypanophobia may prove to be a significant obstacle to obtaining herd immunity against coronavirus. When a large portion of a population (the herd) becomes immune to a disease, it makes the spread of disease from person to person less likely. As a result, the entire herd becomes protected.

Another potential hurdle to mass immunization may be white coat syndrome, or latrophobia. People who experience white coat syndrome fear that when they go to the doctor, they will find something wrong with them that requires treatment. It is more comfortable for these individuals to avoid doctors altogether.

Latrophobia may affect up to three percent of the population. That’s not an insignificant number when you are looking to vaccinate over 350 million people.

Compulsory vaccination

When the time comes, I’m supposing that General Perna and his troops will do an excellent job of making the new vaccine available to US citizens. If we have a significant number of individuals that refuse vaccination, difficult decisions will have to be made.

In 1905, Cambridge, Massachusetts resident Henning Jacobson disagreed with his city’s mandatory smallpox vaccination mandate and was fined $5 for non-compliance. This seemingly small case eventually made its way to the highest court in the land.

Jacobson’s legal argument was, in the words of the court, that he:

“insists that his liberty is invaded when the State subjects him to fine or imprisonment for neglecting or refusing to submit to vaccination; that a compulsory vaccination law is unreasonable, arbitrary and oppressive, and, therefore, hostile to the inherent right of every freeman to care for his own body and health in such way as to him seems best.”

The Supreme Court rejected his argument. Justice John Harlan Marshall wrote, in a majority opinion:

“Upon the principle of self-defense, of paramount necessity, a community has the right to protect itself against an epidemic of disease which threatens the safety of its members.”

Our future

We can only hope that the course of this pandemic runs parallel to those in our past and that the administration of safe and effective vaccines takes this dreaded disease out of our daily headlines and allows up to move ahead with our lives.

Time will tell.