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Fear of syringes: the US is facing an unexpected obstacle in vaccination efforts

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Images of needles plunging into arms appear on the nightly news, on billboards, bus stop posters, and all over social media. How can people who fear syringes overcome their fears to get covid injections?

Every night is the same. On the television news, stories about the coronavirus vaccination effort are happening, all showing terrifying images of needles sinking into arms.

Those images, which apparently make this all seem routine, could they have a negative effect?

It is not enough to change the channel. Researchers say they could hamper efforts to vaccinate a wide swath of US residents, just as distribution is boosted.

“The fear of needles is what makes a lot of people say, ‘I think I’m not going to get this vaccine,’” said Jeanine Guidry, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who researches visual communication issues and conducted a survey with 500 people in July.

But it’s not just about news.

Disinformation spreading on social media often incorporates images of giant syringes, Guidry recently explained to the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, which makes recommendations to federal health officials.

Social media has been the source of a great deal of misinformation about vaccines in general, and COVID in particular, designed to discourage people from getting vaccinated.

Those “scary images,” Guidry noted, “attract more attention” and can be remembered for longer than other types of illustrations.

Exaggeratedly large syringes

Legitimate efforts to encourage vaccination may also have sparked fear by displaying oversized syringes, said Guidry, who also urged public health experts to be careful with their messages.

“If you use the image of a huge syringe that looks like twice the size of my head, that’s going to make it clear to you how big it is,” Guidry said. “I don’t even want to think about how that would affect someone with needle phobia.”

Even attempts to reassure people by showing leaders like Dr. Anthony Fauci or the president and vice president getting their covid shots on television can backfire, said Hillel Hoffmann, a Philadelphia-based freelance writer and communication consultant.

“I always turn around,” said Hoffmann, who recently wrote about his fear of needles in an article for Medicalbag, an online publication aimed at physicians.

“Those images are supposed to motivate me because they ensure that the vaccine is safe and available, but I’m not at all concerned about the safety of the vaccines,” Hoffmann explained. “What I cannot assimilate, due to my fear of needles, is the image of someone with a small gauge needle buried in the deltoid muscle.”

Public health experts say it is important to vaccinate at least 70% to 80% of the public to achieve what is called herd or herd immunity when a sufficient number of people will have had or received the covid virus. a vaccine, which will greatly limit its spread.

But fear of needles contributes to some people having doubts about vaccines.

An analysis of a wide range of studies, in the United States and other countries, on this topic by researchers at the University of Michigan showed that between 20% and 30% of the adults studied cited concern about needles, ranging from mild anxiety to a phobia strong enough to avoid medical attention.

Many healthcare workers also mentioned fear of needles, according to research, published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing in August 2018.

“There is a perception that people who work in hospitals would be less afraid of needles, because they are surrounded by them all the time, but one study found that 27% of hospital employees who did not get a flu shot said that it was due to their fear of needles,” said Jennifer McLenon, an infection prevention specialist at Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital, who completed the study while studying for her master’s degree in epidemiology.

Another study found that 18% of healthcare workers in long-term care facilities felt the same, McLenon added.

Trypanophobia or extreme fear of needles

An extreme fear of needles or medical procedures that involve injections is technically called trypanophobia, said Jeffrey Geller, president of the American Psychiatric Association.

“Some people avoid needles for fear of pain, others for fear of fainting,” Geller said. “And some, faint.”

It may be evolutionary based, said Thea Gallagher, a professor and clinic director at the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety at the University of Pennsylvania. “Evolutionary biology teaches us that seeing a sharp object enter our body is not something to keep calm,” Gallagher added.

But Geller and Gallagher said the barriers created by this fear or phobia could be lowered with careful public health messages, along with self-help techniques that people can practice or, in severe cases, professional assistance from a therapist.

For the millions of Americans who are afraid of needles, there are ways to help themselves, experts say:

  • Put it in perspective. Be positive about the reasons you are getting the vaccine and remember that the pain will be short-lived, like a blow to the toe, said Thea Gallagher, clinic director for the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety at the University of Pennsylvania. For those who get two doses, “they have to be objective about how the first one was and accept that they got over it.”
  • Go to get vaccinated with a companion. Some vaccination sites allow it. Ask.
  • Practice deep breathing or other techniques to help you stay calm. Eat something and drink water before you go; This reduces the chance of fainting. And you can request to be inoculated in a reclined position.
  • Inform your vaccinator of your concerns. “When you get there, you can say, ‘Look, I don’t like needles.’ Health care providers are used to that,” explained Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.
  • Don’t be afraid to seek professional help if your fear is intense, but you are convinced that you want to get vaccinated. A therapist can use cognitive-behavioral techniques or exposure therapy to help you, said Dr. Jeffrey Geller, president of the American Psychiatric Association.

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