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Health centers in Skåne may once again start booking vaccination appointments for the elderly, and now a reasonable amount of Astra’s vaccine is available for the first time for those over 65. But all the travels around that vaccine have created anxiety and misunderstandings.
Vårdcentralen Lunden has a large room available to handle vaccination, which intensifies during Easter. “We see a lot of fear, just mentioning Astra,” says operations manager Jonas Hamfors.
In Skåne health centers, they are preparing to receive and start using 48,000 doses of the Astra vaccine during Easter week, and to face different reactions.
– We have the feeling that half-truths have taken over the entire debate on drug safety. And we see a lot of fear, just mentioning Astra, says Jonas Hamfors, operations manager at the Lunden health center in Malmö.
At your health center, therefore, they have made a small list with simple answers and explanations, among other things, about why the vaccine was discontinued and why it can now be used for the elderly.
One of them is: “Do these additional checks just to be sure of benefit for everyone.”
Another: “Covid-19 is a very serious disease, especially for the elderly and patients at risk, this must be taken into account.”
This is something you need to hear from everyone who works here: we get questions about vaccines every day. I get a dozen questions myself every day, even though I’m a manager and don’t work much in the business anymore, says Jonas Hamfors.
Has thought a lot on the pedagogy surrounding the big vaccination, and that just got your health center on the list of explanations.
– But the great task for the whole country now in vaccination planning is to withdraw the mandate and be able to explain that security is enormously high.
-When many rumors abound, eventually it becomes that nobody knows anything and everyone worries. The doubts are unfounded, but it is not easy to understand that the rules of drugs are very strict compared to many other things in society.
“In my health center, I intend to try to produce easy-to-understand arguments and comparisons: if so many millions have received the Astra vaccine, it is like two in all of Sweden.” says Jonas Hamfors.
Drug company language and detailed reporting of side effects are legal requirements, but they can contribute to fear, says Jonas Hamfors.
– Compare to a list of common pain reliever side effects like Panodil, you may be terrified.
And it is not easy to explain that if millions of people get vaccinated, in some cases extremely unusual side effects can appear. On the health center’s list is the comparison that 20 million people received the Astra vaccine, about two in all of Sweden.
Skåne’s 160 health centers they have chosen slightly different ways of booking their patients for vaccination. In Lunden, patients of the appropriate age have largely been contacted when the vaccine doses have arrived, so that a syringe can be safely offered.
– There have been volumes so small that it has been possible to work like this. But it’s still been a huge job, with multiple plans and backup lists, says Jonas Hamfors.
With higher volumes, the reserve work increases.
– But we are ready, we have been waiting for months, what seems like years!
