ReachMD

Announcer:
You’re listening to Clinicians Roundtable on ReachMD. On this episode, sponsored by CSL Seqirus, we’ll hear from Dr. Christina Madison, who’s an Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice at Roseman University of Health Sciences. She’ll be discussing the importance of the flu vaccine amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s Dr. Madison now.

Dr. Madison:
Whenever we're communicating with our patients, I think it's really important to talk about our why. So for me, I tell people all the time my why is my children, my husband, and my family. And I want to make sure that I'm as healthy and well as possible to be able to play with them and to do activities with them. And I think when we ask patients why they may be hesitant to receive any vaccination, including influenza, we really need to ask about what their why is. We know that right now, the influenza season looks like it's probably going to be a little bit more aggressive than last year, especially because we went from having universal masking to people just being out and free. So respiratory illnesses in general are on the rise. And so I think the biggest thing is just letting people know that this protection is not just for them; it's for their families, and we want everyone to be able to celebrate the holidays together. And if you're sick or ill for something that is a preventable illness, you're not going to be able to do that.

So as far as things that you can do in the real world to help with vaccination rates, I think the biggest thing is meeting patients where they are and making it extremely easy for them to get vaccinated so much so that they can't refuse. So grocery stores, concerts, right? I even was able to vaccinate people at a jazz festival one time. So making sure that we're removing barriers. So if cost is an issue, communicating what that cost is, and if they're unable to take on that cost, providing them with low-cost or no-cost options so that they can make sure that they're able to get vaccinated and get fully protected as well. So making it crazy easy for people to get that vaccine and removing any possible barriers that may lead them to choose not to get vaccinated. So convenience, easy, and hopefully no cost.

Announcer:
This episode of Clinicians Roundtable was sponsored by CSL Seqirus. To access this and other episodes in this series, visit ReachMD.com/CliniciansRoundtable, where you can Be Part of the Knowledge. Thanks for listening!