More need to get vaccine before we defeat Covid, medical expert talks about dealing with skeptics

FOX 2 - Health experts say we need as many people to take the vaccine as possible to put the pandemic behind us.

The question is how to get people to roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated. Dr. Michelle McMurray Heath, the CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization joined us to talk about it.

"There are pockets of skepticism about the vaccine among many corners," she said. "One recent study showed Republican males are feeling more hesitant about the vaccine than they have in the past."

Being forceful in trying to urge people to get the vaccine or "shaming them" isn't the best way to win them over, Heath said.

"No one should feel ashamed of asking questions," she said. "Science is about asking questions and I feel it is incredibly important for people to ask as many questions as they feel they need to, to have certainty for themselves and their families."

One place those with questions can go is covidvaccinefacts.org 

Some of the doubt lies in the speed at which the vaccines came out. 

"The vaccines are not just the result of the last year's incredibly concerted effort to try to stop Covid," she said. "Vaccine technology is some of our oldest technology. We've been using vaccines since the smallpox vaccine was created in the late 1800s. It is a tried and true approach that is really teaching your body how to fight for itself. 

"When we do a vaccine, we are delivering a little building block of a virus to your body so it can learn how to fight that building block."

She said that childhood vaccines that have defeated very deadly childhood diseases show how much they work.

Heath said that for those who have already had COVID-19 should still get the vaccine.

"Part of what we don't quite understand about how Covid works is that we really don't know how long your immunity lasts after you have had Covid," she said. "People seem to have varying amounts of immune responses to the actual Covid disease."