Arms race brings out sense of celebration
AS CANADIANS GET JABBED WITH VACCINE, ‘LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL’ VISIBLE
I FEEL LIKE THE URBAN CENTRES ARE GETTING COVERED. I FEEL LIKE RURAL CANADA IS BEING MISSED. EVERY TIME I SEE A FRIEND POSTING (PHOTOS OF VACCINATION), I’M HAPPY FOR THEM BUT FEEL INCREDIBLY ANXIOUS. — SARAH GILES, RURAL FAMILY PHYSICIAN IN KENORA, ONT.
As COVID-19 vaccines continue to be administered to front-line health-care workers across Canada, many doctors have been using social media to share photographs of their vaccinations. These began as celebrations of an innovative medical breakthrough during a long and taxing pandemic, but have also become ways for doctors to lead by example and show the public that COVID vaccines are safe.
“I’ve never had people request a photo when they’ve gotten a vaccine before,” says Monika Winnicki, a dermatologist in Toronto who decided to volunteer to administer vaccines at the Sunnybrook Cancer Centre after her grandfather died from COVID-19. “I think it points to how terrible the pandemic has been and what a historic moment it is …. I’ll be very excited and enthusiastic for when my turn comes up.”
Kelly Ogilvie, an emergency doctor in Vancouver and an Ironman triathlete, says she was surprised when her vaccine selfie got more likes than a Facebook post about finishing her Ironman competition. “I think it speaks to how everyone’s looking forward to the light at the end of the tunnel,” she says.
However, some frontline workers say the social media phenomenon is fuelling anxiety, envy and frustration. Many physicians are still waiting for their turn in what has been a slow national rollout, criticized for its fragmentation across, and even within, provinces.
“When we are on the front lines and seeing, on social media, vaccinations being given to child psychiatrists doing Zoom meetings or doctors on maternity leave … it gives us the message that we’ve been forgotten,” says Alan drummond, an emergency physician in Perth, Ontario, about an hour southwest of Ottawa.
For drummond and other doctors outside of major centres, vaccine celebrations on social media are “tiresome” and “demoralizing.”
“I feel like the urban centres are getting covered. I feel like rural Canada is being missed,” says Sarah Giles, a rural family and emergency physician in Kenora, Ont., near the Manitoba border. “Every time I see a friend posting, I’m happy for them but feel incredibly anxious.”
“We were told (a vaccine) is three months away. There is no vaccine rollout where I’m working — no one has received a vaccine,” she says. “I’m just disappointed. My hospital covers several different communities and there are outbreaks and we definitely see Covid-positive patients .... rural lives matter too.”
Giles, who has also worked with doctors Without Borders in countries such as Sierra Leone, Pakistan, South Sudan and Myanmar, says she is worried about the effect of vaccine photos on the morale of people in lower-income countries. “My friends in those countries are not posting vaccine selfies,” she says.
Winnicki echoes her: “One of the personal support workers I was vaccinating said her mom who lives in the Philippines was told by her local public-health official that she wouldn’t be getting it until 2023.”
In Montreal, where frustrations have grown over a slow provincial rollout, Audrey Marcotte, an emergency medicine resident, says: “As selfies continued to show up, the emotions turned a little bit complex. I caught myself in a more envious state, and then feeling guilt around feeling envy.
“It’s never about individuals; it’s more about feeling (the rollout) should be going faster than it is,” she says. “I think it’s a normal feeling. But I think it’s important to acknowledge the feelings of envy and guilt.”
Charlottetown emergency doctor Aleisha Murnaghan has also felt some guilt, but for different reasons. “We haven’t really seen a ton of cases …. My life hasn’t really changed a whole lot in the past year …. I’ve had Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with my family. Birthday parties have been celebrated.”
Murnaghan has received her second vaccination dose. “I haven’t posted anything for fears of how it would make my deserving colleagues who haven’t gotten theirs yet feel. Seeing their anxiety on social media has made me realize that posting a picture … might not help their morale.”
Still, many doctors argue that the selfies are useful to educate and inspire vaccine-hesitant friends both outside and, surprisingly, inside health care.
Jennifer Chu, an emergency physician at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto says, “there’s a lot of mistrust and conspiracy theories around ‘Big Pharma.’ A lot of people also don’t understand how drugs are made and think that the vaccine can’t be safe because it was rolled out so quickly.”
Vaccine hesitancy has been surprisingly prevalent among health-care workers at long-term care facilities. Some Ontario centres have had worker vaccination rates as low as 20 per cent, according to Kashif Pirzada, an emergency doctor in Toronto.
Pirzada has also been working with Canada’s South Asian COVID Task Force to target vaccine hesitancy that is prevalent among the country’s South Asian population.
“usually the same claims will come up, such as that the vaccine will change your DNA, or that it hasn’t been properly tested, or that it contains pork products, which would make it forbidden for Hindus or Muslims,” he says.
Pirzada decided to post a selfie with captions in Hindi and urdu to combat this false information.
Constance Nasello, chair of the Ontario Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, hopes to also see social media used to advocate for vaccinations for pregnant women.
“When Ontario Public Health put out its guidelines for vaccinations, they excluded pregnant and lactating women,” Nasello says. The consensus by several societies, including the Society for Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, is that it should be offered to pregnant women, she says.
Nasello explains that the risks of complications from COVID-19 are higher in pregnant women, so vaccination is especially important for them.
“About eight to 11 per cent of pregnant women who acquire COVID-19 will end up sick enough to be admitted to hospital, and two to four per cent end up in ICU with severe complications, including being on a ventilator for weeks to months and longterm effects from COVID. The risk for non-pregnant women is one to two per cent by comparison, so we’re looking at a two to four times higher rate of severe disease in the unvaccinated.”
Nasello says she’s been using social media with other obstetrician-gynecologists to get the message out there. “Pregnant doctors are posting to show people that they feel it’s safe enough to get it themselves.”
Kavitha Passaperuma, an oncologist in richmond Hill, Ont., says that, despite the controversy, she thinks physicians should keep sharing selfies to celebrate and promote vaccines.
“I think we have an obligation as medical experts to spread sound medical knowledge and facts to our non-medical friends and family,” she says.
“I think the time to address and remove vaccine hesitancy is now …. As physicians, we are highly mindful of staying in our own lane when it comes to various societal issues. This is our lane.”