IT is a few days short of it being a year since I could leave ‘lockdown’ in Trinidad and come back home. Since then, I have spent more time reading, researching, and reporting on COVID-19 than I have done anything else. And at this point, I feel saturated and, honestly, a tad bit frustrated.

Part of me wishes that all people would get vaccinated and reduce their chances of becoming seriously or severely ill after experiencing some of the worse symptoms of COVID-19. But, part of me appreciates healthy skepticism.

Over the past few weeks, what has become slightly frustrating has been the sea of misinformation that confronts and sometimes opposes the sound reporting on COVID-19. The conversation on COVID-19 has also become inundated with concerns over the newer local vaccination mandates. Both of those things, in my opinion, have contributed to growing anti-vaccination (anti-COVID- vaccination, specifically) sentiment.

However, let me hasten to add that I understand and accept that many people have valid concerns and feelings about both the coronavirus and the COVID-19 vaccines. And, I believe it is the responsibility of people like myself to listen to and try to address those concerns, whether by providing information or contextualising information being provided.

This is why I wanted to also talk about the importance of good communication at this crucial point of the pandemic. I believe that the people who were eager to get vaccinated and who understood the benefits of the vaccines have already gotten vaccinated. As such, the challenge ahead is to engage the hesitant and those in opposition.

My use of the word ‘engage’ instead of ‘educate’ was intentional. You see, I believe it is easy to give assurances that the COVID-19 vaccines are good and safe; it is easy to back these assertions with scientific research published in reputable scientific journals. It is good and well to tell this to people because it is true: the COVID-19 vaccines are good because they do help to prevent hospitalisations and deaths. And these vaccines are safe because they have gone through requisite clinical trials before getting emergency-use authorisation.

Making people believe those assurances, as opposed to misinformation that appeals to their skepticism and draws out their fears, is much, much harder. Let us be practical: you can spend all day encouraging people to double-check these assurances “reputable sources” such as the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) or the World Health Organization (WHO), or to read scientific journals such as the Lancet, but they simply would not. Who has the time to go through the highly technical or scientific information and google everything they don’t understand?

And that is why it becomes important, in my opinion, to engage people. This means listening to their concerns and fears, showing them the information, and providing them with the resources to interrogate those and think for themselves.

Just recently, a friend of mine wanted to pick my brain on the new COVID-19 measures published in the Official Gazette. As expected, that conversation ventured towards the effectiveness of the vaccines and whether everyone becoming vaccinated would put an end to the spread of the novel coronavirus.

He did not believe me when I told him about the merits of getting vaccinated, and so, I encouraged him to think about how polio is prevented with vaccines, and I encouraged him to think about why we take all those childhood vaccines before we can even start nursery school. At the end of that conversation, he still was not convinced that the COVID-19 vaccines are our saviours to end this pandemic; he did acknowledge however that vaccines have their merits.

And I genuinely believe this is the sort of engagement that will help people to confront their fears and navigate their fears about COVID-19, and maybe, it may help promote vaccination.

I get it, this pandemic has been overwhelming, and it has made many of us skeptics. During the earlier months of the pandemic, I recall that information was constantly evolving and unless you diligently followed the forthcoming research, you would easily be confused. And now, with vaccines, a lot is going on.

For those of you who understand and believe in the science of COVID-19 vaccines and the protective measures being instituted, I urge you all to find ways of engaging people around and helping them understand the importance of COVID-19 vaccines to help them address their concerns and fears.

If you would like to connect with me to discuss COVID-19, this column, or any of my previous works, feel free to email me at vish14ragobeer@gmail.com