Fear of needles, authority

New research is showing vaccine hesitancy or opposition may not all be related to politics. Often it is related to fear, anxiety, and mistrust.

Many of the unvaccinated frankly fear needles. The anxiety of submitting to the needle may bring on a panic attack because of injection phobia. Private rooms and an emotional support partner can help. Also, the media may need to tone down the daily video extravaganza showing people getting jabbed. These portrayals feel a little bit like public lynchings to many folks.

Anxiety manifests not only in the physical and emotional, but in the rational - the idea that the vaccine was developed too fast, and that long-term effects have not been studied. These anxieties are related to mistrust.

Many mistrust institutions and authority figures, like hospitals and doctors. When authorities say that adverse effects generally manifest within weeks, not months or years, many do not trust the science or the scientist. Inequities and lack of access to primary care providers help to stoke this mistrust, as can long-term anti-social influences in people's lives.

Part of the solution may involve loving, forgiving, and embracing others outside one's own immediate trusted circle, and trying out things that formerly were too scared to try.

One of the underappreciated teachings of the founder of Christianity is to simply "believe" that things can and will get better, that safety and comfort will come if one will just reach out. Part of this is believing that most people in authority, at least in America, will not deliberately abuse their authority.