Welcome back.
Most Canadians won't need convincing that a COVID vaccine will be worth taking
once it arrives.
But, as you just heard, many Canadians have questions.
So, to answer some of ours,
Dr. Cora Constantinescu, an infectious disease specialist
who works at the vaccine hesitancy clinic
at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary.
And Dr., I didn’t even know a place such as yours even existed.
I mean, who gets referred to you, exactly?
We have made it into a more of a streamline process
and have actually going out in the physician community
and told them that we are here to support them as they refer the patients into us.
And then, do you see it as your job to sort of convince people to get vaccinated?
I see it as my job to support people as they’re making the decision to vaccinate.
So, how does that conversation sound?
I mean, where do you even begin?
I star every time reminding myself
that at the heart of each and every vaccine hesitancy appointment,
there is a parent trying
to make the best decision they can for themselves and their family.
And it actually takes quite a lot of courage to come in
because they’re battling a lot of fears and misinformation,
and overall, a lack of trust.
So we spend quite a lot of time building rapport and trust with each family
understanding more about them so we can actually personalize
and tailor the communication and the message that we give them about the vaccinations.
And then, we work closely with public health
where they go ahead and actually administer the vaccines.
And that’s striking that you would say there is this kind of lack of trust.
I mean, how would you even begin to advice?
I don’t know, like a provincial government, a local government,
or the federal government to create that or to build that.
Yeah, so, I really think that when we think about trust,
we have to think at the personal level, and at the population level.
And at the personal level,
it goes back to this idea of putting it into perspective
and understanding what the benefit of the vaccine
and the danger of the disease is to each of us.
So, when it comes to COVID, for example,
I would encourage every Canadian to think of what this pandemic
and what they have done for this pandemic
and what this virus has taken away from them.
So, it might be that some have lost loved ones,
others have lost their social interaction, the ability of the kids to go to school.
There is a cost to each and everyone of us
and therefore, there is a benefit to each and everyone of us.
And then, we all have to go and have to take this vaccine
so we can show that we’re indeed in this together.
And then, when we move at the population level,
it’s really important to start building this trust.
It’s a hard task to take on
because you have to consider the complexity of human behavior,
especially about COVID-19.
And our health care institutions can't do this alone.
I don’t want this to come across as a callous question,
but, how do you know what you do works?
Because you are not the one administering vaccines, right?
Do you track your success rate, so to speak?
So, depending on how we look at it.
It’s anywhere between about 50 to 65 %
that patients will go ahead and have a vaccine after they’ve attended our clinic.
And in the vaccine hesitancy world actually that’s quite successful.
This has been an interesting conversation, to be sure.
Dr Constantinescu, thank you so much for your time.
It was a real pleasure to be here, thank you for having me.