Anti-vaxxers are loud, but not changing many minds

A rumour being spread by those opposed to COVID-19 vaccinations that a 50-year old Kelowna man died after getting the Pfizer vaccine are unfounded, according to officials with Interior Health.

There have been a couple of cases where people have been allergic to a component of the vaccine and gone into anaphylactic shock, but they were effectively treated and released from hospital.

“So that is probably the worst ones we have had, but out of nearly 500,000 vaccines, we’ve only have one or two that are seen as serious side effects. The risks are really, really low,” Interior Health Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Albert de Villiers told a media briefing Friday. “Your risk of passing away, or getting serious complications and ending up in the hospital due to the disease, is way worse.

The Central Okanagan has been a target location for anti-vax, mask and lockdown groups, but officials don’t believe it can be linked to lower vaccination rates in Rutland and Lake Country.

“In general I would say they have less of an impact than is being portrayed by them, we, relatively easily, got to 60 some per cent of the population that are eligible to be vaccinated,” de Villers said. “We know that the next 20 per cent, to get us to 80 or 90 per cent, will be more work, but those are not necessarily people who are anti-vaccine, those are people that have access barriers, people that we need to make it easier for.”

He noted that there is another small group that needs more information about vaccinations.

“Then there is the last two or three, maybe four per cent, of the population that are really anti-vaccine. They are really loud, very vocal and have a big platform on social media and they really bang the drum on this specific issue. I don’t think they have such a big impact. If they had, we wouldn’t have had 60 per cent of people clambering for us to please get them vaccinated,” de Villiers stated.

He agreed that they do have an impact within their own social circle, but it’s mostly people with the same views they have.

“They flock together and egg each other on to actually not get vaccine, come up with every conspiracy theory you can imagine and try to dissuade people. The general population are really smarter than that, they understand vaccine is a good thing and we need to protect ourselves,” de Villiers added.