Humor or scare tactics? Vaccine persuasion in Modesto and Stanislaus County
What’s the most effective way to reach anti-vaxxers?
Let’s give points for creativity to the Charlotte ad agency posting huge signs reading “Don’t get vaccinated” on a big black truck with the name of a fake mortuary underneath and an internet address. People clicking on it are urged to do exactly the opposite — bare arms and get the shot (for) herd (immunity) around the world.
What do we call that approach — reverse psychological bait, with a humorous side-scare? If people don’t get vaccinated, the fake funeral home would expect to “See you soon,” a message reads.
When other forms of persuasion falter, I’m OK with trying something different.
It seems like we’ve tried just about every other stick and carrot. Or have we?
I was impressed when physicians Robert Chin, Robert McGrew and Paul McGrew of Modesto’s Cornerstone Family Medical Group wrote a column for this Modesto Bee opinion page strongly backing vaccines. “Doctors, in a real sense, do not heal,” they wrote. “We simply use medical treatments to facilitate the natural God-given healing mechanisms of the human body. We did not invent messenger RNA or antibodies or killer T cells. Vaccines work by giving a kick start to our immune system so that it can do the work it was designed to do by our Creator.”
Three weeks ago, more than 600 Sacramento Valley doctors signed an urgent, articulate plea for vaccines. “As your physicians, and as the people with whom you have worked, played, laughed, and cried, we must admit we are tired. We will keep working, of course. But we are tired of the suffering, pain, and death that can be avoided by getting vaccinated,” the letter said.
Could we do something like that here? Some sort of nudging from the medical community beyond three Christian doctors doing their best in their limited sphere?
Supervisors in Fresno County are considering offering $500 incentives to county employees there who get the shots. Makes Stanislaus County’s offer of $20 gift cards to anyone approaching a county vaccine clinic a few weeks ago seem chintzy, but at least our people were trying something.
Others lifting their voices on this opinion page include former Bee visiting editor Lori Coleman, who pleaded for unity, and Todd Stolp, who was Tuolumne County public health officer from 2003 to 2015.
When Modesto Mayor Sue Zwahlen was asked to use her unique position as our top elected official, plus her background as a hospital emergency room nurse, she responded with not one but two vaccine videos.
More than once I’ve noted the truly miraculous vaccine development, coming in record time, got its start under the care of the Trump administration. It’s beyond befuddling that those among us least likely to get the shots are the former president’s most loyal followers.
Ivermectin scarce in Modesto — really?
Even zanier is an eagerness to ingest something meant to kill worms in the guts of horses and cows rather than something proven to protect against the coronavirus.
Some COVID-19 victims, previously defiant, have publicly rued their obstinacy. Others just died. The “unmasked, unmuzzled, unvaccinated, unafraid“ 40-year-old Escalon mother — literally one of us — whose tragic story has gone around the globe is just the latest example.
Tragic, because it didn’t have to be that way. Most of the sick and dying failed to take a simple step to protect themselves and their families.
Now for the good news: Despite the delta surge, and despite having lost 1,243 Stanislaus souls, it’s true that our protection numbers are climbing. Only 52% in Stanislaus County are fully vaccinated, but that’s much better than eight weeks ago, when 36% of us were.
Let’s keep heading in the right direction.
This is an open invitation for any local ad agency, funeral home, physicians’ group, flower shop, restaurant or other entity to use this opinion page as a platform for education and encouragement — creative, humorous or otherwise. Letters to the editor of 200 words or less can be sent to letters@modbee.com; drop me a line at gstapley@modbee.com if you’ve got an idea for a longer column.
This story was originally published September 22, 2021 at 12:00 PM.
