Health experts address COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy


Health experts address COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy

MADISON (WKOW) — Questions and concerns about vaccines among the public are nothing new, and with the rapid development and availability of COVID-19 vaccines, those questions may create a hesitancy in some patients. 

UW Health says questions about the vaccines can be fueled by natural skepticism, confusion from media reports, or online misinformation. Where lingering concerns exist, they are normally around two primary questions, according to Dr. James Conway, professor of pediatrics, UW School of Medicine and Public Health, and a vaccine expert and pediatrician at UW Health.

“It really comes down to the fact that people want to know that these new vaccines are safe and effective,” he said. “It’s natural to be a little skeptical given how quickly these vaccines were created.”

Conway says the three vaccines created by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson/Janssen are all extremely effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalizations and death, and there have been virtually no significant safety concerns.

The process for approving the vaccines was dramatically faster than for previous vaccines against chicken pox or tetanus. In the United States, that involved streamlining, rather than changing the process, conducting robust clinical trials and moving through the Food and Drug Administration approval process with more urgency and fewer delays, according to Conway.

“As tens of millions of people have been vaccinated to this point in the U.S., we can see that they are working, but just as important, they are proving to be very safe,” he said.


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