Public still understandably nervous over vaccines

• Source: Global Times
• [23:18 November 26 2009]
• Comments

In Western countries, especially in the US, such a waiting attitude is largely accompanied with mistrust in the government. The US government played down the situation during the initial spread of the disease and reduced the severity of the epidemic situation. It is suspected of deliberately misleading the public. 
 
Later, the US government suddenly announced it has entered a state of emergency and began large-scale vaccination. Therefore, people naturally distrust their government.

In contrast, the Chinese government closely monitored the possibility of an epidemic from the start, and has established a good image with the public over this issue. The public has faith in the government's intentions.

The main concern in the current situation is more about the vaccine itself. The public would like to see a detailed and scientifi c evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of the vaccines.

To promote vaccination at this time, therefore, we should still adhere to the established principles of "informed voluntary vaccination," and we should also expand the publicity of the program.

This calls for the assurance of the government and for the testimony of scientific experts. It should also prompt the government to publicize more details of the vaccines and a variety of experimental data.

At the same time, the government should establish a large-scale monitoring and tracking mechanism for vaccinated people, and provide real-time reports of the changes in the vaccinated population to the public.

Based on the data and facts, the government should clarify the "false alarms" that are not caused by vaccination and tell the truth to the public, just as with the daily report of the epidemic situation during the SARS outbreak.

As time goes by, people will gradually have confi dence in the vaccine.

The author is a sociologist at East China Normal University. zzhphoenix@163.com