How Food Banks Can Help Address Vaccine Hesitancy
by Kristin Gourlay Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
The COVID-19 pandemic has not only increased the need for hunger relief; it has drawn more attention to the inequalities that often lead to hunger. Something similar is happening with COVID-19 vaccines, with communities of color less likely to be vaccinated than white communities. Hesitancy about vaccines is playing a role in that gap.
Because food banks work directly with clients every day, they can play a strong role in keeping their clients healthy and informed.
Who’s Vaccinated, Who’s Hesitating, and Why?
Half the U.S. adult population is currently fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, fewer Blacks and Hispanics have received vaccines than whites and, across all races and ethnicities, some people are still hesitant about receiving the vaccine. Recent survey numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau show a little more than 11% of U.S. adults say they are either unsure about getting vaccinated or probably won’t.
Their top reasons? More than half aren’t sure it’s safe or are concerned about side effects. The answer is to acknowledge those uncertainties and address them with the facts, in easy-to-understand language from a trusted source. That is why we have partnered with the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.
Answering Questions about Vaccines with the Facts
The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association together with Feeding America has provided a variety of ready-to-use covid-19 vaccination educational materials in English and Spanish for use across our network of 200 food banks. These materials include social media posts, posters and flyers with frequently asked questions. The information comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as from doctors and other clinical experts who work at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. A toolkit for the materials is available in the Hunger + Health resource library.
The materials focus on some key questions
- Are the vaccines safe?
- Do people really need a vaccine?
- Are they effective?
The responses are straightforward, factual and even acknowledge what scientists don’t know about the vaccines. For example, when it comes to safety, food banks can post this language on their social media accounts, “Some people may experience mild side effects, but that’s a sign the COVID-19 vaccine is working.” For people who ask whether they should still get the vaccine even if they’ve had COVID-19, there’s language that reminds audiences that COVID-19 can still pose a health risk, and we don’t yet know how long natural immunity lasts. So, experts recommend people get the vaccine even if they’ve already had the virus.
The hope is that those kinds of clear, factual answers from trusted sources will help reassure people that it’s safe—and important—to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
About the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is a national federation of 35 independent, community-based and locally operated Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies that collectively provide health care coverage for one in three Americans.
Author Bio:
Kristin Gourlay is a writer and multimedia brand journalist for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. She has covered healthcare and the environment for more than 15 years, most recently for Rhode Island Public Radio and as a Kaiser Health News/NPR reporting fellow.
12/23/21 Below is an outline of this article’s problem still occurring now. I wanted to know if any foodbanks offer Covid shoots at their distribution sites, as people were waiting for food? Google pointed me to this article, many others about testing for Covid at distribution sites. However, I wonder if any foodbanks are gathering data on offering shoots as people wait and documenting and educating those who still decline this Covid shoot option without significant barriers. Unclear if offering bonus food vouchers would be sufficient incentives or unethical compulsion, but if it saves some people’s lives and provides a reluctant solution, it should also be part of this recipe solution.
@pjesella, @NCMNPS
Yesterday on PBS NewsHour, a segment covered this topic area of a significant number of poor minorities still maintaining hesitancy in getting a covid vaccine shot. Pastors, community leaders, local government, and medical stakeholders pointed out two key themes and the failure of a third. Regarding the stated problem from poor minorities that transportation was one significant factor, efforts were made to provide free pick up and drop off transportation, which was not used, costing wasted resources. Reasons, why free transportation failed seemed to imply that this was more an excuse used than an actual barrier towards getting a covid shoot.
The two key themes were that individuals focus on getting daily basic survival needs, such as food support from food banks, rather than balancing these needs with possible consequences of coming down with a severe case of Covid. The second theme was more open-ended in specific solutions regarding {People are scared. How do we get the scare out of people}? Those being interviewed were, I believe, from Mississippi, but another segment was about a barber who had transitioned from a “No” to getting a Covid shoot and talked about his customers teasing him about his conversion. One said he wants to wait 2-5 years to ensure it is safe. Again it seems many will still refuse due to stubborn attitude. Using the wait at foodbanks to answer questions and offering a quick Covid shoot, maybe with Foodbank additional vouchers, might be a cost-effective way of changing a sufficient number of minds to be worth the investment in planning, cost, and execution.
I hope you can offer me some feedback and links to additional articles or contacts that could help me better understand the logistic problems in moving this idea into reality.
Peter P Jesella