The coronavirus pandemic isn’t over, but on social media it might feel like it is. In the United States, the happy, smiling faces of recently vaccinated friends and family members offer a slice of hope, but the vaccine selfie can elicit a mix of reactions. It’s awkward to feel annoyed at a vaccinated loved one, but it also makes one wonder: Did you need to post that vaccine selfie?
The vaccine selfie could be a source for good, encouraging others to get vaxxed amidst the rapidly spreading QAnon-inspired anti-vaxx conspiracy theories; medical inequity of the vaccine rollout both nationally and around the world; and vaccine distrust within traumatized communities of color. Similar to the “I Voted” selfie during election times, there could be a positive, greater good that comes from the vaccine selfie and thus halts the spread of COVID-19.
There have been more than one billion doses administered in at least 209 countries worldwide. Despite this positive outlook, the global inequity is stark. In 38 countries, including Georgia, Iran, and Senegal, less than 1% of the population is fully vaccinated. India is in the midst of a COVID-19 crisis, where there have been over 28 million infections and 335,105 deaths; approximately 26 million have recovered and only 3.3% of the population is fully vaccinated.
Even in Germany, where a husband-and-wife team of Turkish-German scientists presented the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine with a 90% effective rate, only around 22% of the country’s population has been fully vaccinated. In the US, approximately 42% of the population is fully vaccinated, which is on the high rates based on global stats. Among the highest rates are Israel, where nearly 60% of people are fully vaccinated, and Seychelles, the chain of islands off the east coast of Africa where 65% of people are vaccinated, though the region experienced a new wave of infections, possibly due to the use of less effective vaccines Sinopharm or AstraZeneca.
In the United States, clinics and distribution centers have set up vaccine selfie stations to increase vaccine confidence. According to a Pew survey released in March, 70% of Americans intend to get vaccinated.
In a survey released in February, researchers at the Imperial College in London found that global vaccine confidence was growing. In the UK, 70% of respondents said they would get vaccinated, but in France that number was only 30%, citing worries about side effects and even that the vaccine could be a government conspiracy.
A reported published by the RECOVER Social Sciences team in collaboration with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control found that of seven European countries surveyed — France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and Ukraine — only 36% of people strongly agreed that vaccines were safe.
Whether the vaccine helps with confidence or not, is the vaccine selfie necessary?
Read the full story on Hyperallergic: https://hyperallergic.com/652060/to-vaccine-selfie-or-not-to-vaccine-selfie/
