Researchers discuss ways to roll out potential COVID-19 vaccine, address community concern

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX/WTTE) — What are the best practices to roll out a potential COVID-19 vaccine? What about anxieties or concerns in the community?

Those are some of the topics ABC6/FOX28 discussed with Dr. Monica Schoch-Spana, with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who authored a new report just released Thursday.

"You can't assume because you build it that people will come, you have to understand it from their point of view, from the user's point of view," she said.

Dr. Schoch-Spana said researchers reviewed challenges that may pop up in the roll-out process or concerns people may have about whether a vaccine could be safe, effective, trustworthy or affordable, for example.

"What we are arguing is that you have to meet people where they are," she said.

Reviewing those anxieties and more, ABC6/FOX28 was told researchers came up with recommendations for leaders about how to overcome potential hurdles. They are making recommendations like making the vaccine available at no cost to U.S. residents, creating independent panels associated with the vaccination program and recommendations to work on communication.

"We need to do very quickly what we call rapid response research to actually talk to people both by way of surveys and also face-to-face to understand their ideas about risks and benefits," said Dr. Schoch-Spana.

ABC6/FOX28 asked the researcher if she sees this as an important moment for the public health sector and for our leaders, in terms of how they roll out this potential vaccine.

"Yes, absolutely and people's resilience is wearing thin right now. I mean they are faced with a disease that can cause illness and death. They are faced with a disrupted economy, disrupted social relationships, because of the physical distancing, so if and when we get a safe and effective vaccine we are going to get some relief from those stresses," she said.

She advises public health leaders to take a different tact at times and try to listen to concerns.

"I think one of the difficulties that public health faces right now, is there are varying degrees of perceived risk associated with COVID-19 and we have a highly politicized and socially fragmented population right now. So talking about something like vaccines, which is difficult sometimes on a daily basis, is doubly so, that said if we get this conversation right and if we really listen to people, I think we can overcome those types of social and political barriers that are keeping us all apart," she said.

You can read more about the report here.

We have heard from Dr. Anthony Fauci who has said a vaccine could be ready by the end of the year or beginning of the next.

However, the FDA's commissioner said earlier this month he could not predict when a vaccine would be available.