- Well, some of the reasons stem from just not having access
to the right type of information.
It could be they heard an anecdote on social media.
Their cousin's baby's momma's friend
told them about something.
But a lot of these things stem
from things that are just, frankly, not true.
- To be fair though, there have been some challenges
throughout this pandemic.
I mean, first it involved masks
and then the Johnson and Johnson vaccine
caused quite a bit of a stir.
So, if you are sitting out there
and wondering is this the right move for me?
How do you navigate those feelings?
- Well, first I think it's important to point out
that the American public right now
is seeing the scientific process in action.
You're getting a view underneath the hood.
And, as scientists, when we're trying to do things,
we're actively trying to disprove our hypothesis, right?
We have an idea of what will happen.
And we say, well, let me do experiments to prove
or disprove that hypothesis,
so that we know that moving forward
that we are correct under a vast set of conditions.
With the Johnson and Johnson, when that got taken off,
that actually proves that the system does work.
Instead of us saying, "Well, let's just leave this
on the market, it might hurt people.
Screw them." No, we don't say that.
We say, "Well, let's actually make sure,
that this is verified, this is safe for people to take."
The thing with masks is well,
we didn't actually have great data
on how masks do protect people.
So we had to do all those studies
on the fly to actually figure out, well,
respiratory droplets will get caught in the mask.
So again, you're seeing the scientific process in action.
- Much of the concern from people who are skeptical,
surrounded that this vaccine came to market
much too quickly.
This is what you study.
What do you say to them?
- Well, what I can tell you is,
that the safety period of study for this particular vaccine
did not change from any other vaccine.
What ends up happening is when you're trying
to get something to market,
there's a lot of market analysis.
Will the community need this vaccine?
Will the community need this drug?
There's also a lot of manufacturing that you have to do
which you don't do until you do that market research.
Otherwise you would lose out on all the money
that you poured into something,
if somebody actually doesn't need that.
What happened in making these particular COVID vaccines,
is actually those processes started to overlap.
So the safety data was actually done
at the same time as manufacturing
and the market research wasn't necessarily needed,
because it was pretty obvious.
And a lot of those processes,
were also supported by the government
so that they could actually be accelerated.
That was actually Project Warp Speed.
But again, the safety period, the study period,
that actually did not change,
it's just that everything was overlapping.
And that's what sped up the whole process.
- For the families who are watching this
and hearing the news,
that children could be vaccinated here very quickly.
What do you recommend to them
about the best research for their family,
as they debate whether or not they should do this?
- Well, I think that it's important for you
to make sure that your sources are real.
And by that, I mean, if you see a meme on Facebook,
if you see a meme on other social media,
know those are sources that anyone can really make up
at any particular time.
However, if you see verified research
on CDC's website and IH's website,
these are sources that you can actually trust.
And, it's weird to say, I guess the counterargument
that people say, "Well, well you have an agenda.
You make money from, giving those vac..."
I don't make any money from these vaccines.
My only agenda is to actually be able to go back to normal.
And the only way we're going to be able to do that
is for people to be able to get vaccinated.
- You believe there's been a real need
for communicating the science in layman's terms,
but then doing so, so that it reaches a wide audience.
- Absolutely communication has been key.
So if you look at data in October,
about 40% of African-Americans said
that they would get the vaccine if available.
Counter that to March, all of a sudden,
that percentage is in the 70's,
as far as who would get vaccinated
or have already been vaccinated,
among the African-American community.
That was due to educating those particular populations.
Going into churches, going into schools,
talking to community leaders.
So the education for this virus and for getting the vaccine,
actually does work.
But, it just takes a lot of people to do that.
- Okay, Dr. Michael Johnson.
Thank you.
- Thank you very much.