Apas character flashes a yellow wristband to show hes not a threat.
In fact, the first vaccine dosescould be administeredas early as this month.
How and when will public life resume once the vaccines are available?
And how can public pressureand even fashionable braggingbe used to get enough people to take it?
In lay terms, were in bad shape.
So how do we get enough people to take it to functionally end the pandemic?
Those numbers are worrying, he said.
In other words, people are more likely to participate if they think they are being watched.
That same social pressure could be applied to vaccines, he said.
Part of it is the expectations of what others are doing, he said.
But selfish desires to return to normal activities might actually save us.
But everyone else is on their own.
In the end, the private sector will be mandating vaccines faster than the government, he said.
Travel companies and tourist destinations will particularly quickly jump on vaccination requirements and publicizing vaccination rates.
If you vaccinate, the usual argument is youre taking away my liberty to choose, he said.
Businesses themselves should step up and require employees to vaccinate before returning to the workplace, Ratzan said.
He cited the example of theater in New York City, an industry that employs more than 90,000 people.
Its in everybodys interest to get that back open, he said.
But even in that case, the private sector might act more efficiently.
For air travel, two apps are in the works that would verify vaccination status.
Vaccine certification would be added at a point still to be determined.
Even the kind of visibility and tracking an app provides could be crucial in fighting resistance to a vaccine.
A lot of vaccine distribution will be on the state level.
He cites two popular long-running and successful examples: Smokey Bear and the Click It or Ticket pro-seatbelt campaign.
You cant just leave it up to the states, he said.
Smokey Bear is 75 years old, and is [still] an icon people know.
If were able to get a movement going, that would be really positive.
