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Vaccination

 Meet people where they are. 


Immunization is a cornerstone of public health and vaccination is an investment for the individual. 

The cornerstone is fractured when there is incongruence between medicine and public health. 

The investment is fractured when there is a disconnect between the individual and the public.


Repair the fractured cornerstone. Be professional with the professional credentials handed.

In a functioning, interdependent system, we would rely on scientific expertise for research and development of a tool, we would rely on medical expertise and diagnosticians to assess appropriateness of this tool to the individual, and we would rely on public health experts to bring the tool to people - where they are. We do not have a functioning, interdependent system in a world of discourse and inconsistent application of scientific concepts. While we cannot control the external energy, we can control how we meet people where they are. 

  • We should set expectations that those who lead healthcare practice continuous anticipatory planning for the public. 
  • We should be honest and realistic about the differences in healthcare training. If a clinician is not skilled nor trained to plan for human behavior, they should not be viewed as the expert in public health. Public health is about meeting people at their imperfections and at their unhealthy behaviors; it is not about diagnosticians treating the individual body, nor is it about a medical degree. We should spotlight experts accordingly, and we should assume imperfections with any planning.
  • We should acknowledge the unhealthy, poorly designed deliveries of health communication with individuals. We should acknowledge all rumors, myths, social platform discourse and scientific argument. 
  • We should address the grey areas of research and of healthcare delivery with vaccines. We can address this with our professional colleagues and we can address this as a stronger component to health studies syllabi. 
  • We should prepare the healthcare clinician for rigor and integrity to immunization operations. For example, it is diminishing and negligent for healthcare managers, or clinicians themselves, to assume any nurse can give a shot. The public discourse and attention to vaccines is too great to continue routine false pretense. Integrity and rigor to immunization should be required, and this should include how to manage poor vaccine decision-making or poor communication from advanced degrees. 
  • We should anticipate and plan ahead for scientific discourse. The concepts and arguments around pandemic vaccines have been present for decades. This discourse should have been anticipated and approached before widespread public campaign.

Repair the fractured cornerstone. Be professional with the professional credentials handed.

 

Secure the investment for the individual. 

  • We should listen, first. What does the individual have to say about vaccines? We should not listen to reply, we should be grateful the individual has welcomed us in to their space.
  • We should be prepared. The history, discourse, research, funding, findings and every other element related to vaccines should be a part of our knowledge portfolio. The unknowns and likelihoods of vaccine administration should be clear. The information should be presented as a knock on the door, and any time another uninvites us from their place, we should be prepared to exit. We should be prepared for imperfect interpersonal behaviors, and we should plan for the bandwith of our tolerance. 
  • We should prepare companies. Political donations, connected stocks and trading, business relationships and other Wall Street energy has always been inappropriate in healthcare. It is one of the primary barriers between the public and public health, and no amount of entrepreneurial Silicon Valley VC spin will water this slick oil down. Companies should be prepared, through ethics enforcement from public law and through peer pressure. Public health should accept nothing less than the complete cultural shift away from the kudzu that is Wall Street in healthcare.     
  • We should prepare the individual. The history, discourse, research, funding, findings and every other element related to vaccines should be a part of one's knowledge portfolio. The unknowns and likelihoods of vaccine administration should be clear. The individual should know that he or she is in control of their place and their space.
  • We should set aside time, financial and spatial resources for the individual. What can we provide to be able to meet one in their place and in their space? What can we provide for those interested in self-research, those interested in virtual communication, those interested in face to face conversation, those interested in taking extra time to think it through?  
  • We should set socially acceptable policies that secure the investment. This is true for both those individuals who have invested through vaccine and those that have not yet done so. It is not enough to want to care for an individual in a public setting; professionals entrusted with the public must avoid unintentionally harming the individual. Other members of the public should also avoid unintentional harm. We should continue to set the tone through workplace and social policies, planning for an imperfect human society. Policies not supported by the majority should also be reviewed. We have to meet variable and imperfections and differences where they are, and at select times this requires anticipatory policy. 
  • We should value trust. We should not message scientific findings as facts, nor should we sow doubt with tone or wording. We should value trust most, and know that the investment of vaccination is a deposit into our interpersonal trust savings account.

Secure the investment for the individual. 


We will not find success if we look for an individual member of the public where a medical scientist graphically plots them to be, or where a physician diagnoses the person to be, or where a public official regulates the person to be. 

We will find success if we ask the individual where they are, ask if we can come meet them, ask if they prefer to be away from all the noise. We will find success if we take the time to just be there, side by side. 

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