By Karen Kier
Pharmacist on behalf of the ONU HealthWise team

In the 1950s, two social psychologists working for the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) developed a model to explain and predict health behaviors. The USPHS offered free health screenings and services, but they noted a lack of response. This work resulted in the Health Belief Model. 

Why am I bringing up a model from the 1950s to discuss the pandemic of today?  Good question! The Health Belief Model is relevant today and used within the public health sector to explain consumer health behavior. 

I thought of the Health Belief Model after two distinct issues were on television.  One was the 60 Minutes interview with the President when he stated that the pandemic was over and the other was a CDC commercial declaring “dangerous” SARS-CoV-2 variants, which were circulating and to protect oneself with the bivalent vaccine.  

The Health Belief Model considers several factors in determining the likelihood of someone engaging in healthy behaviors such as vaccines and screenings.  The model involves an individual’s perceived barriers, benefits, and susceptibility to a health condition or threat.  It evaluates cues to action towards a health event as well as modifiable variables. 

What does all of this mean?

Whether someone chooses the COVID-19 vaccines, including the new bivalent, is very dependent on their perceived threat or seriousness of a COVID-19 infection.  If one perceives the threat of an infection would increase their risk of hospitalization, death, or long COVID-19, then their cue to action and likeliness to engage would include coverage with a COVID-19 vaccine.  As with other important decisions, we often weigh the risks versus the benefits of our actions.  The Health Belief Model weighs those two options.

Misinformation and disinformation (dangerous and intentional spread of misinformation) about COVID-19 infections and vaccines has created issues and who to believe when evaluating the risks versus benefits.  U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has called the misinformation spread via online social media an urgent threat to the United States response to COVID-19 and prolongation of the pandemic by putting lives at risk. A Kaiser Foundation study reported that 67% of those individuals who were unvaccinated believed at least one myth about the COVID-19 vaccines. 

The Health Belief Model takes into consideration the impact of misinformation as a barrier to engaging in healthy behaviors.  Healthcare professionals are trying to change the perceptions created by false information, but it is difficult when 70% of what is shared on social media are false claims.  

So, is the pandemic over as shared on 60 Minutes?  

Neither the CDC nor the World Health Organization (WHO) have declared the pandemic to be over.  Some healthcare professionals have worried about such a statement because this gives individuals a sense of no longer being at risk of a COVID-19 infection or the need for a vaccine.   A perceived lack of susceptibility as explained by the Health Belief Model. A revision of the statement indicates the pandemic is still here but under control.  

The second concern is the television commercial reporting dangerous mutations or variants and to protect yourself with the bivalent vaccine.  This commercial is meant to be a cue to action and to understand the threat of mutations of SARS-CoV-2. Again, the Health Belief Model in action. 

It is important to understand the current global and national outbreak of COVID-19 and the potential threat, but I am not sure the word “dangerous” is going to help our cause for bivalent vaccines. 

The WHO provides a global dashboard for COVID-19 including monitoring variants or mutations to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.  As of September 22, 2022, the WHO has no new variants of interest (VOI) and no new variants under monitoring (VUM) on the dashboard.  The Omicron variant is the only one under monitoring by the WHO.  Of the Omicron subvariants, the BA.2, BA.4, and BA.5 are on the list.  

Two additional subvariants known as BQ.1 and BJ.1 are mutations under monitoring.  The BQ.1 subvariant is an Omicron BA.5 sublineage (relative) and has been identified as causing infections in New Zealand.  The bivalent vaccine has BA.5 coverage.  The BJ.1 subvariant is an Omicron BA.2 sublineage and has been reported in India, South America, and parts of Europe.  The Omicron BA.2 is not part of the current bivalent vaccine.  There could be an argument for the use of the word dangerous when pertaining to some of the newer sublineages of Omicron.  

The BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron variants are responsible for over 97% of the cases of COVID-19 and provide a health risk.  The best way to combat further mutations and the continued spread is to provide a vaccine with the BA.4 and BA.5 spike protein.  The bivalent vaccines provide these spike proteins and allow an additional benefit to the original spike protein in the first series of vaccines.  

Our cue to action is to get Omicron under control by containing the spread and continued mutations.  Trust your healthcare professionals to provide you the most accurate information and to help dispel the myths. 

ONU HealthWise is offering COVID-19 vaccines, as well as flu shots Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.. The bivalent COVID-19 vaccines are available.  Clinics are Monday through Friday from 4:00- 6:00 p.m.. Please call the pharmacy for an appointment outside of those times or to get more information.  

ONU HealthWise Pharmacy
419-772-3784
www.onuhealthwisepharmacy.com