The Covid-19 vaccines are extremely safe and effective, but some people are still hesitant to take one. Here’s how to persuade them.

Dr. Oni Blackstock finished seeing patients one day in late December, and then she became the patient for a few minutes: She rolled up her sleeve and got her first Covid-19 shot. But as she chatted with the nurses—both at work that day and while filling out paperwork for the vaccine—she encountered the same line from several of them: “I’d like to wait and see.” While some of the nurses were clamoring to receive their own vaccines, others were wary.

It may be surprising to hear that even health workers, who have worked tirelessly to combat the pandemic over the past year, have questions about the safety and efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccines. One national survey found that 15 percent of health workers choose not to get one—for now.

But that’s understandable, said Blackstock, who is a primary care and HIV physician and a former assistant commissioner at the New York City health department, especially because there was little education or outreach to health workers before the vaccines began rolling out. Answering questions about them—like whether you still need a shot after having Covid-19 (yes)—is as important as nailing the distribution of the vaccine, experts said. “Yes, it seems like it was developed really quickly, yes, I could understand your concern about that,” Blackstock told me. “And then you can ask permission to say, ‘Can I share some information with you that you may not be aware of, or that might be helpful in your understanding of the vaccine?’” Read more at The New Republic.