‘Stay calm and give facts’: how to talk to those who are hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Take your time, stay calm and give facts – this is the advice from local doctors on how to approach talking with friends and family who still haven’t had their COVID-19 vaccine shots.

This guidance comes as the province is pushing to get to the last 20 per cent of people in B.C. vaccinated.

Dr. Anna Wolak, a general practitioner and also part of the “This Is Our Shot” volunteer education team, says normalizing getting the vaccine is key.

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— This is Our Shot ???????? #ThisIsOurShotCA (@thisisourshotca) July 29, 2021

“I tend to bring it up as a, ‘So you’ve gotten your vaccine, right?’ Come in with the assumption like it is normal to accept that they’ve gotten the vaccine.” she said.

Wolak adds fear is the main issue for most people who still haven’t received a shot, she says it’s both fear of the vaccine itself, and the reaction they’ll get if they voice their concerns.

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“People feel like they’re going to be met with, ‘Oh, I don’t want to know you if you are not going to be vaccinated,’ or they’re going to be met with ‘tinfoil hat’ wearing conspiracy theorists,” she says.

Wolak suggests that starting from a place of calm can really help conversations.

Dr. Navdeep Grewal, an Emergency Room doctor also involved in the This Is Our Shot campaign, says most people need reassurance — something many in B.C. can give.

“Four out of every five people in B.C. have been vaccinated. Those are our ambassadors now. It’s not just educators, not just health care professionals, it’s not just politicians,” she says.

Grewal says the This is Our Shot site is totally written and vetted by physicians.

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— Bardish Chagger (@BardishKW) July 28, 2021

“It’s in a format you can print off and give to family and friends, that can answer all your questions,” she says.

It’s estimated only about five percent of people are steadfast anti-vaxxers, so Grewal says patience and facts are what’s needed now.

“I think at this point it becomes a one-on-one conversation with many people, and I find myself doing that even in my day to day outside of work in the ER,” she says.

BC Ambulance Service Paramedic Alex Wyder says sharing his experience of working on the front lines of the pandemic has helped him have conversations with hesitant family and friends.

“It’s like, ‘Look, I’m your friend,’ I’m working on the front line, I’m seeing people that you fit into the category of that are being sick with this virus and that are suffering from it, and potentially even having long term effects, and are dying from it,” she says.

“And I have some actual reputable science to say, this is what’s going on in terms of long term effects.”

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Having to have a conversation with previously hesitant family members, and members of the public frequently, Wyder says coming into conversation with understanding, rather than the goal to change someone’s mind, can be helpful.

“It takes a great deal of mental work to … check myself, turn off my aggression, or annoyance for a moment, and to sit down with this person. But [ask] ‘what’s your hesitancy?’ and then also trying to find a way to communicate with them that … make sense for them and appeals to their humanity,” she says.

Living with elderly family members, Wyder has ultimately made the choice to not spend time with friends who choose not to get vaccinated.

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— ashleyl (@btbme) July 29, 2021

“As we reopen society, we also reopen our social boundaries. We are now getting to decide who comes back into that social circle, and we have every right to say, ‘if you’re unvaccinated, you’re not gonna be part of that.’ And that’s not being cruel. That’s not being mean. That’s taking care of yourself.”

Ashley Leslie, a Lower Mainland mom, recently had to make the decision to have her son vaccinated — without the blessing of his father.

As her ex-husband is against COVID-19 vaccinations and mask usage, Leslie says it was a “no-brainer” to have her son vaccinated.

“And there are family members who aren’t vaccinated and who can’t see us, because our family has decided as a large group that we will only get together, we will only have people in our homes, if you’re fully vaccinated — the end” she says. “And for a family who does lots of get-togethers, it breaks my heart because people are missing because they just refuse to get vaccinated.”