Promoting COVID-19 Vaccination on Social Media.

Abstract

* Abbreviation: COVID-19 — : coronavirus disease 2019 People’s willingness to get immunized against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to shift.1 Vaccine hesitancy remains high in minority communities.2 We do not know how parents will respond when the vaccine becomes available for children. Given these uncertainties and the importance of attaining high levels of immunization, physicians need to encourage people to get immunized. This work will be as difficult and important as providing clinical care for people who have contracted COVID-19. It will require careful communication with individual patients. Furthermore, to fulfill our professional obligations to educate the public, it will also savvy use of social media. If we do this well, it will save more lives than all the ICUs in the world. Health professionals have a long-recognized obligation to care not just for individual patients but, also, for the health of the public. To fulfill that obligation, we need to help the public understand the safety and efficacy of immunization. Today, the best way to do that is by using digital media platforms. Such public education through digital media is not something we learned how to do in medical school. Not every doctor can do it. Opponents of immunization are very active on social media. In some cases, doubters raise important questions about the side effects, anaphylaxis, or the duration of immunity. In other cases, however, their posts spread debunked disinformation embedded in true information. For example, a (true) … Address correspondence to Fajar Raza, MBBS, Department of Bioethics, Children’s Mercy Hospital, 2401 Gillham Rd, Kansas City, MO 64108. E-mail: fraza1{at}cmh.edu