Vaccine hesitancy is topic of Carnegie Science Center discussion

In spite of all the scientific evidence indicating that vaccination is the key to fighting the spread of covid-19, a significant segment of the American population remains hesitant to get inoculated.

Vaccine hesitancy is part of the impetus for the second panel in Carnegie Science Center’s Vaccine Speaker Series, a webinar that begins Thursday at 7 p.m. The discussion will focus on ways to encourage people to get vaccinated and help prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

The panel includes Paul Duprex, director of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Vaccine Research and Jonas Salk Endowed Chair for Vaccine Research at Pitt; Pittsburgh-based infectious disease expert Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security; Tullia Bruno, an assistant professor in the Department of Immunology at Pitt, and Dr. Obinna Nnedu, an infectious diseases physician at Ochsner Health in New Orleans.

President Biden has set a goal of having 70% of American adults partially vaccinated for covid by July 4. But right now it appears the U.S. will fall short of that goal.

“It’s a significant problem in the fact that we still haven’t reached President Biden’s goal, the metric that we want to reach,” said Adalja. “We have pockets where vaccination is lower in the south among certain demographic groups, especially middle-aged white, Republican males.

“The fact is when you work in the hospital now, what you’re seeing is unvaccinated individuals are the ones getting admitted. Some of them are still getting seriously ill. The more people that we get vaccinated the better off we’ll be at preventing those illnesses.”

The White House has become so desperate to reach the 70% goal that it’s partnering with businesses and other entities to provide everything from money to free beer to no-cost hunting licenses.

“It’s sad that we have to do that because I think the vaccines sell themselves, that people should be clamoring for them anyway,” Adalja said. “We’re in a society now where just the power and the science of the vaccine to improve your individual life isn’t enough. People want something extra. Vaccines are something people should want on their own based on the benefits of the vaccines.”

Thursday’s event is free to attend but pre-registration is required to receive the webinar link.