Vaccine hesitancy was steadily increasing prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and with the emergence of the new mRNA shots and vaccine mandates, it increased even more.
The causes of this hesitancy is commonly attributed to “misinformation” and “fake news” according to government affiliated health agencies and legacy media. The science and evidence that has raised legitimate safety concerns with mRNA vaccines, for example, is unfortunately never appropriately addressed or acknowledged.
Yet these factors are key in hesitancy because they speak for themselves.
A recent notice from the Ontario College of Physicians (CPSO) reads as follows with regards to vaccine hesitancy,
“It is also important that physicians work with their patients to manage anxieties related to the vaccine and not enable avoidance behaviour. For example, for extreme fear of needles (trypanophobia) or other cases of serious concern, responsible use of prescription medications and/or referral to psychotherapy may be available options. Overall, physicians have a responsibility to allow their patients to be properly informed about vaccines and not have those anxieties empowered by an exemption.”
This statement was updated from the original statement which looked like this.
The original statement on the CPSO website did not include the specific example of a patient with a “fear of needles,” but instead simply read that in “cases of serious concern, responsible use of prescription medications and/or referral to psychotherapy are available options.”
Of course, if someone has an extreme fear of needles and that is the issue, then psychotherapy may actually be appropriate. It would be like therapy for any other phobia someone is trying to get over, for example.
That being said, if their choice to not get a COVID-19 shot is due to the risks they pose, and again, the science showing cause for concerns, then that is a completely different issue. If a patient has assessed that the risk of vaccination is too similar to the risk of disease, as with COVID-19 for many age groups, then they are not coming from an unsound mind or extreme fear.
In some cases, physicians may be completely unaware of the science and data that is most likely contributing to this vaccine hesitancy simply because medical associations and government bodies for physicians, like the CPSO, are not relaying them to their physicians.
While the CPSO website claims that physicians “have a responsibility to allow their patients to be properly informed about vaccines,” their recommendation of “medication” or “psychotherapy” for those who have concerns about the vaccine suggests a disregard for those who opted out of the shots based on other information. And as stated, this could be information physicians don’t have themselves.
There have been a recorder amount of adverse events recording for COVID-19 mRNA shots since they began. This is a reasonable cause for hesitancy when these shots don’t stop transmission or infection.
In the United States for example, CDC data that was released on October 3 of this year shows approximately 783,000 people reported seeking medical attention for what they perceived to be a serious adverse reaction after getting their COVID-19 vaccine.
By not addressing these concerns, more and more people are losing trust in both physicians and federal health regulatory agencies at an exponential pace.