Although hoping to obtain full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (Food and Drug Administration) Will prompt unvaccinated Americans to finally get vaccinated. Early data shows that the last step did not lead to a significant surge in vaccination rates.
According to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, within 10 days of the FDA’s official announcement, the United States has received 8,848,828 vaccines.
In contrast, in the 10 days before the announcement, 8,489,839 vaccines were vaccinated across the country, indicating that after the FDA’s decision, the number of vaccines increased by only 4%. An analysis showed Weekly newspaper Established.
The analysis also showed that the first dose within 10 days after approval actually dropped by 9% compared to the first dose rate in the 10 days before the announcement.
Many people had expected that the final approval seal of the regulatory agency would encourage more people to get vaccinated, especially polls conducted among unvaccinated Americans showed that the FDA’s full approval can help vaccine skeptics overcome hesitation.
Chief Medical Adviser of the White House, Ph.D. Anthony Fauci, It has been estimated that the announcement will persuade as many as 20% of the 90 million eligible people in the United States who have not yet been vaccinated to sign up.
A June survey by the Caesars Family Foundation also showed that approximately 30% of adults who have not been vaccinated said that obtaining full approval would make them more likely to be vaccinated.
These forecasts predict that after August 23, approximately 18 million people in Fauci and as many as 27 million people investigated by Kaiser will be vaccinated, when the FDA announced Pfizer The vaccine “meets the high standards of safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality required by the agency.”
However, early data shows that this number is only half of the forecast.
Ringo Chiu/AFP
Dr. Robert Brandon, Professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis at Harvard University, told Weekly newspaper The difference is mainly due to the way the polls were hesitant about vaccines.
Because polls ask respondents whether they are “sure” they will do something, or whether they are “more likely” to do something, the results of the survey may represent a larger number of people than people who perform these actions in real life.
“It turns out that a lot of people who are’more likely’ don’t do what they say,” Brandon said.
Since FDA approval, the amount of vaccination has risen slightly-which is closer to 10% of people who said they “definitely” will register for vaccination before approval-more in line with doctors’ predictions.
Dr. Abinash Virk, an infectious disease expert at the Mayo Clinic, said: “I kind of expected us to increase slightly, but I am not surprised that we did not have such a large peak.” Weekly newspaper.
Virk said that while many people who have not been vaccinated may cite the lack of FDA approval as the reason for their decision, approval may be one of the many reasons people have. On its own, the announcement may not be enough to persuade some people to finally get a shot.
“People seem to have multiple reasons. We all hope that getting FDA approval will make a difference, but skeptics are still skeptical,” she said. “Unfortunately, [the FDA approval] It helps, but it doesn’t completely change the landscape. “
Virk added that for many skeptics, even if more and more rumors are exposed, there are more and more data proving the effectiveness and safety of vaccines, but the reasons for not being vaccinated will continue to change.
“Those who oppose vaccination are simply transferring their reasons to other areas,” she said.
“It’s just a lack of belief that a vaccine is needed in general,” Wilk added. “It may not necessarily be an anti-vaccine, but some people feel that they don’t need a vaccine, and we have exaggerated the benefits of the vaccine.”
Emily Erkonen/Stringer
Brandon believes that when it comes to vaccine hesitation, the key factor is not what encourages people to get vaccinated, but whether they are afraid of the virus.
“most [the polls] Don’t ask if you are worried [about the virus], It turns out that the core group that has not been vaccinated is not very worried-whether it is COVID or Delta [variant],” He said.
If someone is afraid of contracting the new crown virus, the questions in these polls are logical, but Brandon said these problems are not the other way around.
For example, if someone is afraid of an upcoming hurricane, you can ask how they will protect themselves.
“But if you first said what you plan to do if I’m not afraid of hurricanes, the situation is different,” Blendon explained.
He continued, “People are not paying too much attention to the fact that the core group that has not been vaccinated keeps telling pollsters,’I’m not very worried,’ while pollsters just say,’No, these are five things that will happen. . [Which] will [cause] Have you been vaccinated? ‘”
He also pointed out that although many health experts have been waiting for FDA approval, many people who have not been vaccinated do not trust the government and therefore do not attach great importance to agencies such as the FDA.
Although full approval may not push vaccination as strongly as expected, Blendon noted that vaccination rates are still increasing.
“One share is really strong [on vaccines], But I believe it is moving and is moving south. FDA approval is only a small part of it. This is with the clinician on TV telling you,’I’m dealing with people in the ICU, and they tell me they will never get vaccinated and they are dying,'” he said.
Brandon said that the story of the local intensive care doctor is one of two key ways he thinks can overcome vaccine hesitation.
Another approach is to move from analyzing the number of new cases to the ever-increasing number of deaths and hospitalizations.
Blendon said that in both cases, it is important to evaluate the audience’s hesitation about vaccines.
“It really pays attention to the risks of hospitalization and death, and deals with the fact that many unwilling people are anti-government. Some people are very religious and feel that this conflicts with their religious feelings. You want to [vaccines] Into a context they can handle,” Blendon said.
