|
My bivalent shot was not only painless, but oh so easy. And I worry that may be part of the reason our vaccine uptake is lagging so badly.
Let me start to explain my theory by recounting my latest booster experience.
I walked up to the pharmacy counter of my neighbourhood Safeway. I filled out a form on a clipboard. I was given a mask and taken into a side office where a kind and gentle pharmacist applied the jab loaded with Pfizer’s original and Omicron-formulated dose. And then I was on my way, all in about 10 minutes or less.
Advertisement
In the early days of our pandemic vaccination push, jabs were administered on an industrial scale. We had to make our way downtown to the RBC Convention Centre. We had to navigate long lines and the inevitable delays and hiccups. And then we took our seats among the hundreds set out in row after row that would be sanitized as soon as we left to make way for the next batch of people with sleeves rolled up and ready.
That public health response to this public health crisis played out in public for all to see. As much as the jab was about conferring a level of protection to the individual, it was also an act done in the present of the collective. To add emphasis to the collective nature of that act, we were encouraged to share the experience. Remember the “I’m COVID-19 vaccinated” stickers handed out and worn with pride? And don’t forget the government-provided background for post-vaccination selfies to be shared as far and wide as possible.
Today, things are not only far easier, the experience is now completely private. No one knew I was getting my shot. I didn’t witness anyone else getting theirs. There was no sticker handed out after to say that I or anyone else who had made their way to the pharmacy counter were now among the bivalent boosted.
For the record, a vaccine network with pharmacies and doctors’ offices throughout the province ready and waiting to help Manitobans protect themselves is a step forward. But what appears to have been lost in the process is the momentum that comes from the collective will once played out in public and supported time and time again with public messaging from the province, including the likes of cabinet ministers and other community leaders. Is it any wonder our vaccination rates that hit 81.3 per cent during the first round, have been in free fall? Today, the uptake for the bivalent is barely at double digits, finally hitting 11 per cent earlier this month.
So yes, getting vaccinated has never been easier, but the side effect is that uptake has never been harder to achieve.
|
