Bad information usually leads to bad communication. That’s the idea behind the County getting a panel of top physicians in San Diego to fact check the claims made about COVID-19 and vaccinations during Board of Supervisors meetings.
The four doctors, including the County’s medical officer, consist of top doctors from Rady Children’s Hospital, Sharp Healthcare, U-S San Diego Health and the Family Health Centers of San Diego. With efforts to communicate the message about getting vaccinated stalling and polls showing that vaccine side effects are a major worry among those who have yet to get the shot, the doctors used facts and numbers in their effort to alleviate those worries.
As Dr Mark Sawyer at Rady Children’s Hospital says worries about vaccine side effects are way overblown. As he put it, “People who say we don’t know what side effects this vaccine causes, or the vaccine hasn’t been studied enough are not taking into account that we have given these vaccines to over 200 million people in the United States.”
And he says while there have been some more serious side effects such as blood clots and inflammation of the tissue around the heart, they are extremely rare and tiny in comparison to the number of deaths and hospitalizations prevented by the vaccine.
But with social media, the internet and cable TV filled with claims and cases against the vaccines, and the distrust among many people of almost any institution, truth itself is under debate.
‘Who do you trust?’ may become the question that will describe our times as we try to get to the end of this pandemic.
WATCH BELOW: PRESENTATION BY PANEL OF DOCTORS.
(Photo Getty Images)
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Photo: Getty Images