There is a narrative starting to form around the upcoming COVID-19 vaccine that has me concerned. It involves the story that academics and journalists write, and always seem to write, when we talk about vaccine uptake. 1/10

This narrative can be neatly summed up by the first two sentences of today’s Guardian article https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jul/07/almost-one-in-six-britons-say-would-refuse-covid-19-vaccine?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1594101837 2/10

I understand why this framing happens, but I think to make the leap and connect these two at this stage is very dangerous path to take. 3/10

Currently there is no finished vaccine, there is no safety and efficacy data to go with that vaccine and there are no institutions (gov, public health or otherwise) that are currently giving a recommendation that people go out and take said vaccine. 4/10

And yet, even without this, around 70% say that they would definitely or would likely take the vaccine. This is great, this is 70% of the public that are onboard with the scientific process and are ready (or almost ready) to roll up their sleeves and get done with this shit. 5/10

We have a choice to make in the coming months, the more column inches (and public brain space) that we give to this narrative the less we will give to the far more important issue of access, access, access! 6/10

Access in this sense is not just the vaccine being available but the barriers to the vaccine (i.e. time, effort) being reduced as much as possible. Beliefs regarding the vaccine can become a barrier to vaccination but they rarely explain much of the overall behaviour. 7/10

This can be nicely demonstrated in the uptake of the antenatal pertussis vaccine. That rise in uptake in 2016 was not because suddenly we cracked down on anti-vaxxers but instead a change to allow midwives to deliver the vaccine during regular consultation. 8/10

These interventions aren’t as sexy as psychologys big brain ideas like “vaccinating against misinformation” (and I say this as a psychologist that wants to be sexy), but it’s the pattern of thinking we need to get in now before the chaos descends again. 9/10

Please don’t get sucked into the anger, we’re all going to have people we love that (understandably) have concerns about this vaccine in the coming months. A knee jerk assumption that these are due to internet “mumbo jumbo” isn’t the best way to start a conversation. End

There, rant over. I finish my current job in a couple of weeks’ time, expect more on this topic (and the results on our own similar research) then.