Over 82 million Americans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and millions more are getting vaccinated each day.
Most Americans probably know someone who has gotten the shots, but many are still not convinced that they should get it themselves.
“I get it, I understand why people are skeptical, why they’re doubtful and why they’re nervous,” said Dr. Atul Grover, Executive Director at the Association of American Medical Colleges' (AAMC) Research and Action Institute.
One of the main questions people may have about the vaccines is how they were developed so quickly, and whether that means it was rushed.
Dr. Grover told KCBS Radio's "Ask An Expert" the process was quicker than normal.
"But the difference was, normally we leave this kind of vaccine development to private companies…what we were able to do though is to get tens of thousands of people in each one of these trials with the aid of the federal government."
Normally the process is slower because it takes longer to recruit large amounts of volunteers for clinical trials. However, the urgency of the pandemic prompted not only pharmaceutical companies to invest far more resources into their vaccines, but the federal government also invested tens of millions of dollars into the process and many more people were willing to sign up as participants.
"That allowed us to scale up really quickly," Dr. Grover explained.
But he said that does not mean that any of the usual steps were skipped.
"This has been among the most thorough, expansive set of trials that I’ve seen for vaccine development."
The second main reason for hesitancy is that many people in minority groups may have historical reasons to distrust the healthcare system, or have had their own bad experiences.
"I fully acknowledge that we in the medical community and the healthcare system have not always treated everyone equally…and so that distrust is hard to overcome," said Dr. Grover.
That history is also a contributing factor to why approximately one in five healthcare workers are themselves hesitant to get the shots, which may be surprising to people.
"It’s not just the doctors and nurses and PA’s and respiratory techs that are taking care of patients on the frontlines, but it’s all the people that work in those settings. So you have to think about people who are doing billing, coding, the clerks checking you in, the nursing assistants, the pharmacy assistants, everybody down to the custodial staff that’s cleaning the rooms, the food service staff. I’m including in there a lot of people who come from the very communities that are hit hardest but often may be most distrustful."
But he added the vaccines were tested on a diverse sample group and now that nearly a quarter of the U.S. population have received at least one dose, there is plenty of data indicating that the vaccines are safe for adults.
"There’s some concerns about, does this really work on people that look like me? Yes, it does."
He said the key to overcoming people’s fears is by addressing it directly and giving them the information that shows it is safe and effective.
"If you’ve gotten the shot, go tell people about it. Let them know that you didn’t grow a second forehead, you didn’t feel terrible for three weeks," he said. "It is impossible to get COVID from the vaccines that we are currently deploying in this country and it’s really important that we hear that from our neighbors, our friends, our family members that we trust."
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