The surprising group skeptical of coronavirus vaccines

Getting healthcare workers vaccinated is crucial to achieving herd immunity. But hectoring them is unlikely to change their minds. Instead, public health leaders must educate them about the vaccine’s safety and efficacy — and then invite them to opt for the vaccine independently.

Consider the experience of a medical center in South Dakota, where less than half the staff originally wanted the vaccine. In hopes of boosting that number, hospital management sat down with employees to answer questions and address concerns about the vaccine. After those discussions, the uptake rate increased to 76%.

This thoughtful, empathetic approach has worked during past public health crises, too. When U.S. measles cases tripled from 2013 to 2014, UCLA and University of Illinois psychologists set out to find a way to convince skeptical parents to vaccinate their children against the disease. They found that explaining the positive reasons to vaccinate, rather than trying to counter arguments against the vaccine, was more effective at increasing parent support for vaccination.