WEBVTT

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Welcome back.

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Most Canadians won't need convincing that
a COVID vaccine will be worth taking,

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once it arrives.

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But, as you just heard, 
many Canadians have questions.

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So, to answer some of ours,

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Dr. Cora Constantinescu, 
an infectious disease specialist,

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who works at the vaccine hesitancy clinic

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at the Alberta Children’s Hospital
in Calgary.

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And Dr., I didn’t even know 
a place such as yours even existed.

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Who gets referred to you, exactly?

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We have made it into
more of a streamlined process

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and have actually gone out 
in the physician community

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and told them that we are here to

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support them as they
refer the patients in to us.

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And do you see it as your job to sort of
convince people to get vaccinated?

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I see it as my job to support people

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as they’re making
the decision to vaccinate.

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How does that conversation sound?
Where would you even begin?

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I start every time reminding myself

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that at the heart of each and every 
vaccine hesitancy appointment,

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there is a parent trying

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to make the best decision they can
for themselves and their family.

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And it actually takes 
quite a lot of courage to come in

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because they’re battling
a lot of fears and misinformation,

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and overall, a lack of trust.

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So we spend quite a lot of time building
rapport and trust with each family,

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understanding more about them 
so we can actually personalize and tailor

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the communication and the message
that we give them about the vaccinations.

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And then, we work closely
with public health

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where they go ahead 
and actually administer the vaccines.

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And that’s striking that you would say 
there is this lack of trust.

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How would you even begin to advise

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a provincial government, a local
government, or the federal government

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to create that or to build that?

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I really think that when 
we think about trust,

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we have to think at the personal level
and at the population level.

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And at the personal level,

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it goes back to this idea 
of putting it into perspective

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and understanding 
what the benefit of the vaccine

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and the danger of the disease 
is to each of us.

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So, when it comes to COVID, for example,

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I would encourage every Canadian 
to think of what this pandemic,

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what they have done for this pandemic,

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and what this virus
has taken away from them.

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So, it might be that 
some have lost loved ones,

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others have lost their social interaction,
the ability of the kids to go to school.

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There is a cost to each
and every one of us

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and therefore, there is a benefit
to each and every one of us.

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And then, we all have to go 
and take this vaccine

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so that we can show that
we’re indeed in this together.

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And then, when we move
at the population level,

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it’s really important 
to start building this trust.

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And it’s a hard task to take on,

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because you have to consider
the complexity of human behavior,

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especially about COVID-19.

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And our health care institutions
can't do this alone.

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I don’t want this to come across
as a callous question,

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but, how do you know what you do works?

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Because you are not the one 
administering vaccines, right?

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Do you track your success rate,
so to speak?

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So, depending on how we look at it,

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it’s anywhere between about 50 to 65 %

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that patients will go ahead 
and have a vaccine

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after they’ve attended our clinic.

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And in the vaccine hesitancy world 
actually that’s quite successful.

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This has been an interesting 
conversation.

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Dr Constantinescu,
thank you so much for your time.

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It was a real pleasure to be here,
thank you for having me.