--- title: How to Deal With COVID-19 Vaccine Needle Phobia description: Fear of needles is keeping some people from getting their COVID-19 vaccine. Here's how to cope. canonical: https://time.com/6046759/needle-phobia-covid-19-vaccine/ author: Tara Law article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-05-07T17:30:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-14T09:11:47.584Z article:section: Health og:title: 'Needle Phobia' May Be Keeping Some From Getting Their COVID-19 Vaccine og:description: Here's how to cope og:url: https://time.com/6046759/needle-phobia-covid-19-vaccine/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0be418e105fde4fe/698a196b011682d554980984/Vaccine-Site.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3600 og:image:height: 2025 og:image:alt: needlephobia COVID-19 vaccine og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Needle Phobia' May Be Keeping Some From Getting Their COVID-19 Vaccine twitter:description: Here's how to cope twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0be418e105fde4fe/698a196b011682d554980984/Vaccine-Site.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'Needle Phobia' May Be Keeping Some From Getting Their COVID-19 Vaccine. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=a7bf7416-642d-4b25-a186-8de82685c916&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Making the COVID-19 Vaccine: A 50,000 step process [Watch (HLS stream): Making the COVID-19 Vaccine: A 50,000 step process](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/XGIqdw9j.m3u8) (7:28)  _Published 2021-04-18. Inside BioNTech's quest to vaccinate the world_  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law May 7, 2021 5:30 PM UTC Inside BioNTech's quest to vaccinate the world  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law May 7, 2021 5:30 PM UTC Alex Denley, a 23-year-old philosophy doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, doesn’t seem like someone who would be vaccine hesitant. They’re determined to stop COVID-19 from spreading, and haven’t fallen for any vaccine conspiracy theories. However, getting the coronavirus shot was tremendously stressful for Denley. They feared it could trigger a terrible panic attack, leaving them crumpled on the floor, sobbing and shaking in front of a crowd of onlookers. They were also worried about health care providers dismissing their fears. “I don’t want to be treated like a child because I have a phobia. I’m not a child, I’m acting like an adult with a phobia,” says Denley. “I don’t believe that vaccines are particularly painful…It’s literally just that for some reason, my brain processes this in a way that is really intense and unexpected.” Denley struggles with “blood injection injury phobia,” also known as needle phobia. Since they were a child, they’ve experienced debilitating fear when receiving injections. According to [studies](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26352920/) (also see [here](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26352920/), [here](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22617633/) and [here](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jan.13818)) conducted in different countries, as many as one in four adults have some fear of needles, causing symptoms from butterflies in their stomach to debilitating panic attacks—and one in 10 are so fearful that they refuse vaccination entirely, says Meghan McMurtry, an associate professor of clinical psychology at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. Needle phobia has long been a [public health issue](https://immunize.ca/sites/default/files/Resource%20and%20Product%20Uploads%20%28PDFs%29/COVID-19/needle-fears-resource-e.pdf). Sixteen percent of adults avoid flu shots at least partly because they’re afraid of needles, according to a [2019 meta-analysis](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30109720/) across multiple countries published in the _Journal of Advanced Nursing_. But it’s especially salient now, as public health officials strive to [vaccinate as many people as possible](https://time.com/collection/coronavirus-vaccines-updates/) against COVID-19\. Someone who is even mildly nervous about injections may be less likely to get their coronavirus shot—a February [study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7794597/) published in the journal _Vaccine_ found that among people who said they were unlikely to get or unsure about getting the COVID-19 vaccine, 12% said that they are afraid of or hate needles. To help the needle-phobic, McMurtry says that vaccination sites should let people know ahead of time which questions they’ll be asked and what accommodations can be made for them. The site itself should be calm and organized, and people shouldn’t be made to wait on long lines, which could trigger anxiety. Finally, recipients should be vaccinated privately so they don’t have to worry about having an audience. When administering the shot, providers should encourage patients to do whatever helps them handle the process, McMurtry says. Some may want to watch the needle while others want to turn away, for instance. Distractions like listening to music or using a phone can also be helpful. Providers shouldn’t use language that implies pain, like “here comes the pinch!,” as the shot may hurt more if someone is very tense. However, they also shouldn’t minimize the fact that the shot could hurt. “You say things like, ‘some people say it pinches for a few short seconds, other people say it doesn’t bother them, but you can tell me what it was like for you afterwards,'” McMurtry says. “So you are basically opening up a space for them to have their own kind of experience.” For needle phobic people, McMurtry suggests sticking to a plan to guide yourself through the process. Make sure you know how to get to your vaccination site, what you’ll wear the day of your appointment, and how to distract yourself when you’re getting the injection. If possible, get a friend to help plan your appointment, or bring one along on the day of your shot. You can also talk to a doctor about topical anesthetics, which can numb the injection area. People who tend to [faint](https://immunize.ca/sites/default/files/Resource%20and%20Product%20Uploads%20%28PDFs%29/COVID-19/fainting-muscle-%20tension-resource-AODA-compliant-e.pdf) when getting an injection can use muscle tensing practices to keep their blood pressure up. In some cases, [exposure therapy](https://rsc-src.ca/en/voices/high-needle-fear-and-covid-19-vaccines)—in which phobia sufferers willingly and gradually increase their exposure to their trigger—can work, too. Friends and family can also help loved ones cope with needle phobia, McMurtry says. Most of all, avoid making anyone feel guilty about their fears—instead, acknowledge that a person’s “fear is real,” and that it’s “not something they should just get over,” she says. When describing their own vaccination experiences, they should avoid talking about the negatives, but rather focus on the positive or neutral parts. Denley, for one, found it helpful to speak with health care providers about their concerns before their appointment; they were prescribed an anti-anxiety medication and a topical cream. Denley had nightmares leading up to their appointments and repeatedly thought about canceling their Uber to the vaccination site. Nevertheless, they managed to overcome their fear and received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. What was particularly helpful, Denley says, was the kindness of a provider who administered the first shot. That kind of understanding attitude may be key to helping the needle phobic among us protect themselves from COVID-19\. “Being kind of dismissive or joking about needle fear is likely not helpful…It can feel very invalidating for the individual, and it’s not going to really solve it,” says McMurtry. “We need to support each other through this.” ## Transcript [00:01] oh yes yes i'm vaccinated yes [00:06] Very cool [00:10] yes [00:11] yeah [00:12] yes, I did [00:13] it was very cool to to know [00:15] okay I'm gonna be vaccinated with a vaccine that I know really from day one [00:26] I mean who can tell that they're part of the solution for such a pandemic situation [00:30] I guess only a few people can say that and I'm really happy to be part of that [00:51] If you've been vaccinated for COVID-19, chances are that you are benefiting from the science [00:56] happening here at the German biotech company BioNtech. [01:00] In December 2020 BioNtech in partnership with Pfizer [01:04] were the first to earn authorization to distribute their vaccine to the public [01:17] In March 2021 TIME spent a week watching how BioNtech makes a batch [01:22] of 8 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine at their new manufacturing plant in Marburg [01:29] they expect to produce 1 billion doses a year [01:44] the pace of production has been breakneck from the start [01:48] So in 2020 I think we worked [01:51] at every holiday, I can remember Easter Saturday I was standing here pipetting [01:55] samples to have the results as soon as possible [01:59] and now 24-hour shifts in this lab are producing [02:03] vaccines that will be shipped around the world [02:25] There are approximately 50, 000 steps at the lab [02:28] it begins with bags of pure mRNA the molecule that tells cells how to make the proteins that [02:33] launch the immune response and a buffer solution that starts the coding process [02:39] it emerges in bulk at the other end of the process as a liquid destined for vials [02:46] most of the machines are named after the engineers that developed the process [02:50] this one is named after Margaret the first patient in the clinical trials to receive the vaccine [02:56] but the beating heart of the lab is this machine a container that uses pressurized ethanol to encase [03:01] the mRNA and special lipid nanoparticles [03:05] those nanoparticles keep the mRNA protected until it [03:08] can jumpstart the immune response in the body's cells [03:38] Speed is essential but inside the lab everyone moves slowly and methodically [03:45] each of the 50,000 steps is logged by one technician confirmed by a second and only then does it actually happen [03:53] it's very important that the quality of the product and all the raw materials is perfect [04:00] here and so no impurities should be present in all raw materials and nothing which we don't [04:06] want to have in our products [04:08] one wrong move has the potential to damage the final product [04:12] if there's any accidental exposure let's say from an ill-timed sneeze [04:17] the entire batch must be thrown out, all eight million doses that's why everyone wears layers [04:23] of protection and they even disinfect their gloved hands repeatedly [04:45] in the lab where we were filming no one had ever told the technicians how many doses were in a batch [04:56] after that they sprayed another application of disinfectant onto their gloves just to be sure [05:13] based on our technology and on the antigen we were using no I wasn't [05:19] I'm very confident in the technology we have [05:22] until now vaccine development has been a slow process [05:26] the BioNtech vaccine uses a new technology based on mRNA it is revolutionizing the way [05:32] vaccines can be produced [06:03] When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, BioNtech was primarily a cancer vaccine company [06:08] but by using this new mRNA technology it was able [06:11] to quickly pivot to a coronavirus vaccine [06:15] when you look back at any project you've ever done you've [06:17] always looked back at the start and go wow okay if I'd known that now i could have cut you know a few [06:24] hurdles out of my way earlier right but you're in a situation where you're doing something [06:29] especially for us as a smaller company that was unprecedented [06:32] the second part of the process happens at another factory [06:35] where vials are filled and packed into boxes for shipment [06:38] as the cycle comes to an end there's little time to celebrate after all another batch is waiting to be made ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6046759/needle-phobia-covid-19-vaccine/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6046759/needle-phobia-covid-19-vaccine/"},"headline":"'Needle Phobia' May Be Keeping Some From Getting Their COVID-19 Vaccine. 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