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Hopkins Epidemiologist Shares Her
Approach For Communicating With Vaccine Hesitant Persons
“…I’m not a
clinician---I haven’t had to put my life on the line to care for
people like so many of my colleagues have---but I know stuff…Those of
us with knowledge have, I think, a moral responsibility to try to
share it in as many venues as possible.” These are the views of
Jennifer
Nuzzo,
an epidemiologist with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
who has interacted frequently with the media during the pandemic to
provide the latest case and death counts and other information. She
was interviewed about herself last month by the Hub, the Hopkins news
publication.
In a story headlined
“Winning Hearts and Minds”, readers are given a closer look and better
appreciation for the work of this now popular epidemiologist. She is
only one of many to become well-known as a resource person during the
pandemic. (See related story in this issue on what the public role of
epidemiologists has been in Australia).
Fighting
Disinformation
According to the Hub,
Nuzzo has spent the entire pandemic fighting the spread of deadly
disinformation. Her Center for Health Security published a report in
March 2021 entitled National Priorities to Combat Misinformation and
Disinformation for COVID-19 and Future Public Health Threats: A Call
for a National Strategy.
That report identified
five priorities and the first two of these are 1) to intervene against
false and damaging content as well as the sources propagating it, and
2) promote and ensure the abundant presence and dissemination of
factual information.
However, these
recommendations are targeted primarily at the organization and higher
levels. Nuzzo, in contrast, has been acting on these recommendations
more as an individual scientist, and she shares her lessons learned in
the interview. These lessons will be of interest to epidemiology
colleagues who want to share their expertise to help combat
misinformation and contribute to improved control of the pandemic.
Approach
Asked for her guidance
on how to talk with persons who have decided not to get vaccinated or
might need more facts, Nuzzo offered this advice—“Just try to hear
people out and hear what their concerns are…and try to empathize with
them a little bit. The fears they’re expressing come from somewhere.
So the first step is just checking yourself and what baggage you bring
to these conversations... If we don’t do a good job of connecting with
people and addressing their concerns and fears, we’re ultimately not
going to get where we need to be.
Questions Always Good
Asked for advice on
how to talk with persons who say they won’t get vaccinated because
they know too much or have done a lot of research, Nuzzo acknowledged
that some persons have very entrenched opposition. However, others
still do have questions and doing the research to find the right
information is challenging because of the volume of misinformation
available through social media. According to Nuzzo, “I say I’m not
going to judge anybody, I’m here to provide information. I don’t
necessarily assume I’m going to change your mind, but I’m going to try
to give you more information to help you make your decision.”
Differing Values
Nuzzo made the point
that not all persons have the same values or feel the same way about
issues related to vaccines and the medical system. She said “…I think
we’re very quick to judge people, but we don’t realize that we haven’t
all had the same life experiences and we don’t all have the same
privileges.” ■
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