When China shared covid19’s genetic sequence with the World Health Organization (WHO) on January 12, 2020, the information was disseminated and labs around the world quickly started work on potential vaccines.
But as epidemiologist Dr Farley Cleghorn explained to Newsday, scientists didn’t need much more information to start vaccine development.
Before covid19 was discovered, other coronaviruses already existed and work on mRNA technology – used to develop the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines – had been ongoing for over 20 years. The US government alone had already invested over US$12 billion in the technology’s development.
Now as TT’s vaccination rate creeps past 50 per cent – 50.4 per cent as of March 11, 2022 – since the national vaccination campaign started a year ago, Cleghorn said vaccine hesitancy must be combated with clear and concise communication.
After all, while it is important for people to scrutinise science and ask questions, Cleghorn said vaccine hesitancy comes down to a need for greater understanding, which requires a multifaceted public outreach approach.
He told Newsday, “I think in TT we’ve relied too much on the government standing up and giving information. If you do that every day, people stop listening. So the Prime Minister standing up, and the Chief Medical Officer standing up, and giving information loses its efficacy very quickly and we’ve had that for more than two years.
“It’s a standard communications 101 – different messages for different groups but they have to be internally consistent.”
Born in Trinidad, Cleghorn lives and practises medicine in the US. Trained in internal medicine and infectious diseases, he is the global head of health practice at Palladium. He has worked at the US National Institutes of Health at the National Cancer Institute, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland Medical Center/Institute of Human Virology.
As vaccine hesitancy stalls TT’s vaccination programme, Cleghorn said the government must recognise the science behind covid19 vaccines is complex and not everyone will be able to digest the information.
When communicating with that segment of society, the message must be clear and concise: covid19 vaccines are safe, being used worldwide and have the benefit of reducing the probability of hospitalisation.
“When I say there’s a chunk of the population that will be able to respond to the scientific information, these are people who have an existing framework to incorporate that information.
[caption id="attachment_944395" align="alignnone" width="347"] Dr Farley Cleghorn -[/caption]
“But there is a big chunk of people who can’t, and you have to find a different set of words to communicate the science.”
Using culture and the arts as an educational tool can also be effective in reaching groups like young people and senior citizens who may not be active on social media.
By doing this, Cleghorn said, TT’s vaccination campaign will be much more successful.
“Using a portfolio strategy is effective and applies to vaccines
