How to reach people who have not been vaccinated

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What does it take to give more reliable information about the coronavirus vaccine and the vaccine itself?

My colleague Sheera Frenkel spoke to experts and followed a community group as they walked house by house in an ethnically diverse neighborhood in Northern California to understand the reasons behind low vaccination rates. for black and Hispanic versus non-Hispanic whites.

What Sheera found, as she detailed in a Wednesday article, is how online vaccine legends reinforce people’s fears and ways in which to approach personal and social. Easier access to dosage can make a big difference.

Shira: What surprised you from your report?

Sheera: One question I’m trying to answer is whether the inaccuracies that float online about vaccines – that they change people’s DNA or are a means of government control – reach. communities of Black and Hispanic as well as other people of color in the real world or not. I have heard such false information with my own eyes. It has been eye-opening.

Another surprise is the effectiveness of someone standing on a person’s doorstep and talking about their own experiences with coronavirus vaccination and answering questions. The outreach group talked to each household for half an hour or sometimes longer. That could make a lot more of a difference than any online health campaign ever can.

But it’s hard to go door by door. Can reliable information go as far and quickly as false information?

Internet platforms amplify false information and counteract it is not simple. Need more than one celebrity to post a vaccine selfie on Instagram.

Are we overstating the effects of vaccine hesitation? Pediatrician Rhea Boyd recently wrote in our Comments section that the main barrier to Covid-19 vaccination among black Americans is the lack of accessibility rather than caution in vaccination.

That is both.

There are two things that surprised me from my report. First, the false vaccine information is convincing because it builds on what everyone knows is true: The medical community has mistreated people of color, and the bias continues. And second, vaccine hesitation differs from community to community.

That makes reaching black Americans different from approaching new immigrants who are reading articles in either Vietnamese or Chinese, making them concerned about the safety of vaccines. This is an opportunity for community leaders to address what’s stopping those who trust them from getting vaccinated.

You have written about Russian propaganda In Latin America That raises concerns about the coronavirus vaccine from Europe and America. Does that also reach people in the United States?

It’s correct. Two Russian state-backed media networks, Sputnik and Russia Today, are among the most popular Spanish-language Facebook pages in the world. Their news reaches Spanish speakers in the United States.

I hear people ask in my report, Why should they vaccinate the US when Russian vaccines are better? (Those articles tend to cite real stats but in misleading context.) I asked a man I met, George Rodriguez, where did he read it and we found out. that it is from one of the Russian news websites.

What was effective in increasing coronavirus vaccination rates among Black Americans and Latinos?

Looks effective when organizing the clinic is open. People can show up, ask questions they have and get a shot.

What about Republicans? Survey just that they are among the most cautious of Americans about the coronavirus vaccine.

Some Republicans fear that people will be forced to be vaccinated, but that doesn’t happen.

It is clear that among Republicans and other groups who are hesitant to vaccines, once we know more people are getting vaccinated, we are more willing to do so.

How do you see this move forward?

In the past few weeks alone, I have been more optimistic about narrowing the vaccination gap. There have been great strides in reaching people, opening clinics or bringing vaccines to people, and addressing people’s concerns.

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The costs of technological self-reliance

It’s noteworthy that China, the United States, and Europe are all looking for some technology independent measure.

My colleagues Paul Mozur and Steven Lee Myers wrote Wednesday about Chinese government officials urgently reducing their country’s reliance on foreign technology – including high-end computer chips. and artificial intelligence software.

China has long been a country where homegrown technology rules. But increasingly, Paul and Steven write, “China’s leaders are speeding up the plan to do it alone.”

The United States is certainly not China. But as I wrote in a recent newsletter, there is growing consensus between American policymakers and corporate executives that the United States needs to produce or develop more essential technology, Composed of complex computer chips and batteries, within country borders. The European Union is also working towards this goal.

Enthusiasm for automatic technology emphasizes two points. First, there are more and more technologies – like oil barrels or emergency vaccine stockpiles – that nations consider important to national security. And second, the line between pragmatism and nationalism is blurring.

Perhaps no country becomes completely technology independent, as Paul and Steven wrote. Greater self-reliance may still be worthwhile, but it’s hard to know when a greater desire to use homegrown technology is needed and when to waste money, self-failure or even danger.

The European Union and the United States want to throw taxpayers’ money into building computer chip factories, and that could help. Or it may prove a waste of money if factories go down.

And America’s desire for greater technological independence or “beating” China in tech areas like AI or 5G can sometimes be justification for American policymakers and companies. to make more money surveillance technology.

Technology self-sufficiency is a perfectly plausible-sounding goal. The devil, as always, is in the details.

Before we go …

• Governments take over the internet, for example infinity: The Russian government has said it is slowing down on Twitter in the country and accused the company of not effectively removing posts containing illegal content. My colleagues Anton Troianovski and Andrew E. Kramer have written that Russia “is escalating its attack against US internet companies that have long provided a paradise for freedom of speech”.

• DO NOT mess with libraries: A Washington Post columnist found that, unlike other major book publishers, Amazon will not sell the e-books and audiobooks it publishes to public libraries. “The disappearance of the e-book shows how technology monopoly hurts us not only as consumers but as citizens,” he wrote.

• Why does watching TV require a PhD: Oprah’s interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry … well, good luck finding it online after a month. Ed Lee and Nicole Sperling show how the new TV replicates the messy business deals of old TVs and made it more difficult for us.

Hold this

I watched a series of British nature movies and discovered that I love the red squirrels indigenous to that country. Look at their cute buned ears!

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