Dr. Saad B. Omer, MBBS, MPH, PhD, FIDSA, recently wrote an opinion editorial for The New York Times in his capacity as an epidemiologist and expert on vaccination hesitancy highlighting nurses and doctors as essential to the final push for COVID-19 vaccination.
“Twenty years of research on how to persuade people to get vaccinated shows that health care providers are the most trusted source of vaccine information, even among vaccine refusers,” Omer writes. “The nation’s doctors and nurses need to talk to patients about Covid-19 vaccines at every opportunity.”
The op-ed is only the most recent of Omer’s media publications. Earlier this month, The New York Times quoted him in an article on how the US could have saved more lives earlier in the pandemic by opening eligibility to younger segments of the general population sooner.
“Even at the beginning, we should have started at 60 and above, or 65 and above at least,” said Omer.
NPR quoted Omer on why the CDC should be regularly sequencing the genetic code of random samples of virus from breakthrough infections.
“If there is a new variant or there is a change in frequency of a variant, you might want to find out earlier rather than wait for it to appear in severe and hospitalized cases,” Omer said. “That gives you the ability to be ahead of the outbreak rather than follow it.”
National Geographic interviewed Omer for an article about herd immunity, and The CT Mirror sought comment from him about the spectrum of vaccine behavior.
Omer serves as Director of the Yale Institute for Global Health (YIGH), a partnership among Yale School of Nursing, Yale School of Medicine, and Yale School of Public Health.