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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.