Double Vaccinated Leads to Sloppy Prevention
Warning: I have a vaccine opinion.
Being double vaccinated has become the gold standard for survival. Forget about the ethics, the public mood is in favour of allowing double vaccinated people access to freedoms that are not available to unvaccinated individuals. And those freedoms include the freedom to cease participating in some of the annoying COVID safety measures.
I recently spoke with a double vaccinated person and I heard him say, multiple times, that he KNOWS that being double vaccinated does not eliminate the risk of contracting or spreading COVID. (yes, greatly reduces the risk, but does not eliminate the risk.)
He KNOWS that.
And yet, it was there in his tone, in his plans, in his actions. He feels safer. He’s letting his guard down and engaging in ‘life’ as though the pandemic is coming to its conclusion.
I’ll call it the Double Vaccinated Myth.
I’m talking about the feeling of security that double vaccinated people feel even though we all KNOW that a risk still exists.
I learned about a similar phenomenon in a presentation about ethics in the board room. Studies have shown that when a conflict of interest exists (or a bias) and the person involved RECOGNIZES (KNOWS) that there is a conflict of interest or bias, the person THINKS that being AWARE of the conflict makes it possible to make a decision that is fair.
We think that KNOWING about a bias allows us to make an unbiased decision.
The truth? Turns out, it makes us worse at making an unbiased decision.
KNOWING that we have a bias, and trying to make an unbiased decision, results in the bias being even more pronounced.
Double vaccinations does not mean that we can or should relax our restrictions and the other safety measures we have in place.
The problem is that we all KNOW this about the vaccines. And so we are at risk of becoming very sloppy about our COVID protocols.
We face the same challenge when it comes to preventing child sexual abuse.
We have many ways to reduce the risk of COVID. Handwashing. Masking. Social Distancing. Socializing outdoors instead of indoors. Getting tested. Keeping our bubbles small. Vaccines.
We have many ways to reduce the risk of child sexual abuse. Codes of conduct. Reducing one on one situations. Response policies. Talking about it openly. Training adults. Child Abuse Registry Checks/Police Record Checks.
We are at risk right now of forgetting that we have many tools to reduce the COVID risk. If we become complacent, believing that double vaccination is the only solution, we are likely to overlook the other actions we can take to keep each other safe from COVID.
With child sexual abuse prevention, we have already fallen into this trap.
I hear it all the time.
‘I had to submit a police record check to work with kids’.
Notice the period at the end of that sentence?
That period denotes, ‘therefore we are doing what we can to keep kids safe from sexual abuse’.
Across communities, in all levels of all types of organizations this prevailing belief persists. That asking for, or providing a police record check is the only action required to keep kids safe from sexual abuse.
We are seeing that new variants of COVID are reducing the effectiveness of the vaccine. COVID is finding a way to exist and infect even when people are vaccinated. Does this mean that I am arguing against vaccines? NOPE.
Vaccines are one of the tools we have to prevent COVID.
Police record checks are one tool that can weed out known offenders. It’s barely useful because it only stops KNOWN offenders with a record. But I still advocate for doing it.
What I’m saying is, let’s not forget about the other tools we have, which, when it comes to keeping kids safe from sexual abuse, are even more effective and useful than the almighty POLICE RECORD CHECK.
Prevention is a strategy. It’s not a singular action.
Being double vaccinated is one part of preventing the spread of COVID.
Police Record Checks are one part of preventing child sexual abuse.
If we allow ourselves to believe that being double vaccinated is the only way to prevent COVID, then we are at risk of ignoring the other strategies that help.
As long as people maintain the belief that a Police Record Check denotes that safety measures are in place, children will continue to be at risk. When adults believe that a police record check means that children are safe, then they aren't going to engage with the other useful tools that help prevent child sexual abuse.
We can’t prevent child sexual abuse by POLICE RECORD CHECKs alone.
The pandemic will end. Every pandemic has.
But child sexual abuse will still be present, afflicting 34% of our children. Until we adopt a more robust prevention strategy, utilizing ALL the prevention measures that are known.
A police record check does not mean that kids are safe.
Join us for our monthly webinar to find out about the simple steps you can take to enrich your prevention strategies to keep kids safe from sexual abuse.
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If the content of this article causes you distress or discomfort, please seek support.
Where to get help in Nova Scotia
Kids Help Phone 1-800-668-6868
Angela Johnston is CEO and Lead trainer at Priority Kids, a training and advocacy company on a mission to eradicate childhood sexual abuse. Angela coordinated a 2-year provincial project to implement a sexual violence strategy among 20 community organizations. In 2015 she was appointed to the Provincial Public Awareness Committee which produced an award winning awareness campaign. Angela has received recognition from the Province of Nova Scotia for her entrepreneurial leadership and innovation for helping to build a better future for the province
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