Feedback Discussion Board 10: Vaccine Hesitancy, Vaccination Policy, and EpiPen Pricing

Feedback Discussion Board - 10

Following the American Psychological Association’s Guidelines

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Date

Referencing Style: APA / Word Count: 338

Feedback Discussion Board - 10

Feedback 1

COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy, Mandates, and Social Media

Hello Desirae! Thank you for your post. I found your post on vaccine hesitancy really interesting. However, there are some points I agree with and with some, I disagree. For instance, in my opinion, government mandating ‘vaccination for all’ is a welcoming step since, to an extent, it would curb the spread of infection. However, at the same point in time, efficacy of vaccination should also be checked since EUA has also reported that there is 95% efficacy of the medicines, and that even highly effective vaccines cannot control the pandemic unless there is wide coverage of population with vaccination and provided, they maintain mitigating strategies (Gostin et al., 2021). Overall, I believe that vaccinating individuals won’t harm anyone, rather it would lead to development of herd immunity if all the people are inoculated. 

Another point from your post that social media has a strong impact on people’s hesitancy toward vaccination since as per a research, social media makes a strong impact on people the world over and the foreign disinformation campaigns are refraining people to get inoculated (Wilson and Wiysonge, 2020). Thus, social media campaigns should be directed towards making people aware of the actual facts rather than making propagandas to decline the vaccination rates.  

References

Gostin, L., Salmon, D. & Larson, H. (2020). Mandating COVID-19 vaccines. JAMA, 325(6).

                https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2774712

Wilson, S., & Wiysonge, C. (2020). Social media and vaccine hesitancy. BMJ Global Health, 

                 5(10). https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/10/e004206

Feedback 2

EpiPen Pricing, Affordability, and Supply Management

Hello Tiffanie! Thank you for your post. I found your post worth reading. This post on keeping the EpiPen’s prices fair to the general public is important in light of the healthcare requirements of people towards allergies. I am really shocked to know that Mylan has increased the price of EpiPen from $100 for a single pen to $650 for a pack of two from 2007 through 2021(Bloom, 2021). In order to curb the price-hike, strategies such as proper inventories of EpiPens should be maintained, if there are supply issues, they should be accounted for and if the supply is inadequate, the FDA should allow foreign imports of EpiPens (Tunney, 2016). Through these steps, the problem of EpiPens’ stock, and price hike can be controlled and would benefit the people at large.

References

Bloom. D. (2021). Pfizer proposes $345 million settlement over EpiPen price gouging. 

Snack Safely. https://snacksafely.com/2021/07/pfizer-proposes-345-million-settlement- over-epipen-price-gouging/

Tunney, K. (2016). Millions of Americans use EpiPens. Bustle.

https://www.bustle.com/articles/180800-how-many-people-use-epipens-in-america- mylans-price-increase-is-taking-advantage-of-its-users