How to Get Over Our Fears of COVID and Vaccines

It is one of the most famous quotes of any U.S. President - "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself’”.

President Franklin Roosevelt’s famous words in 1933 about the fight to recover from the nation’s worst ever depression may also now apply to our fight against the COVID pandemic.

According to a new study, how we react to fear, good and bad, is leading to behaviors that are both curbing the spread of COVID and spreading it further.

As one of the lead researchers in the study put it, “If fear of COVID-19 exceeds fear of the vaccine, it may spur vaccination and therefore suppress the virus.” Something he said we saw this spring as millions of Americans were vaccinated and cases of the virus dropped. But he adds, “If people think the vaccine is scarier than the disease—whether they are skeptical about how serious COVID-19 is or because of misinformation…people avoid vaccines and a new disease cycle can grow.”

The researchers in this study also say that fear itself can grow and spread because of fear-based news reports, and then fade when more reassuring news arrives. In other words, the study suggests that fear can be as contagious as a virus.

The good news is that they say people may overcome their fears of disease and vaccine from interactions with others who recovered from COVID or got the vaccine and had minor side effects.

In other words, maybe the best way to get over our fears is to get to know more about what we are fearful of.

(Photo Getty Images)