SEPARATING FACT FROM FICTION

Dr. Haight Dispels COVID-19 Myths and Explains Why He Trusts Vaccine

- TIM CRAIG

Dr. Daniel Haight watched the pandemic unfold like everyone else. He followed the news that a vaccine was in the works, and as he considered, he and his family had the same thought that most a lot of others had.

“I personally took a ‘wait-and-see’ attitude,” he says.

For Haight, Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Vice President of Community Health, the wait-and-see attitude was an active one, following the development of the vaccine and searching out as much information from trusted sources as he could find.

He knew what the stakes were. Community health has been the focus of his career. Prior to joining the Lakeland Regional staffin 2012, Haight was the director of the Florida Health Department for Polk County for 16 years, so he knew the process of making sure a population of people received quality, lab-tested health care. When the vaccine was announced late in 2020, then, Haight also knew the vaccine was trustworthy.

“I understood how the vaccine was manufactured, the process it went through, how they did not cut any corners,” he says, “I became comfortable with what other experts were advising as well.”

So when Haight received the call for essential workers to get the vaccine, he was ready and willing to receive it. Now, Haight is sharing his process and scientific knowledge with others to quell some of the misinformation that has spread about the vaccine. It all starts with people seeking out information, instead of just waiting for information to come to them, he says.