Many Karachiites fall for Covid vaccine myths

Around half of the population of Karachi, particularly females and those working in informal sectors, were still unvaccinated because of misinformation and disinformation about the anti-Covid-19 jabs, reveals an investigative report released by the PPI news agency on Thursday.

In Karachi, a city of 14.91 million people, where the country’s first-ever Covid-19 case was confirmed on 26 February 2020, some 6.7 million people had been vaccinated so far, according to the Sindh Health Department’s data. The city boasts of 12.85 million population of over 12 years of age.

The report suggested that misinformation and disinformation about vaccine, such as rumours and myths, spread on various social media platforms was a factor that resulted in a slow pace of the vaccination drive in the metropolis.

Dr Qaiser Sajjad, the secretary general of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), said that false information was circulated on social media that those getting vaccination would die after two years or suffer infertility or the vaccine would deploy a microchip in the arms.

“The vaccine-sceptics use social media platforms, particularly WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook, to spread misinformation and disinformation showing vaccines as a health hazard while some reports in mainstream media, sometimes, also spread such rumours,” said Sajjad.

“There is no truth in these misleading rumours based on propaganda and unscientific myths,” he said, adding that vaccination picked up after the government warned unvaccinated people of stopping their salaries, disconnecting cell phones, banning air travel and restricting entry of students in classes.

“The people’s willingness also surged when private organisations made vaccination mandatory for all their employees with adherence to the virus-induced standard operating procedures (SOPs), the PMA secretary general said.

This investigative report has been prepared by senior journalist M Nawaz Khuhro as part of a project titled ‘Actions for Countering Disinformation and Information Value System Empowerment’ under a joint collaboration between the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) and the Media Matters for Democracy.

The investigation further revealed that most of the vaccine recipients had a more liking for the Western-made jabs – Pfizer and AstraZeneca – compared to the Chinese vaccines – Sinopharm and Sinovac – though most of the Karachiites have been administered the Chinese vaccines.

The investigation found that despite the emergence of dreaded variants like Delta and now Omicron, majority of the citizens of Karachi, including housewives, vendors, shopkeepers and those working at informal workplaces were unwilling to get the vaccine shot.

Nusrat Khuhro, a resident of Gulistan-e-Johar, said that the Covid jab caused side effects. She added that her brother, who happened to be a doctor, had advised her to get the vaccine but she still didn’t want it because of fear of the vaccine’s reaction.

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A restaurant owner near the Sindh Secretariat in Karachi described the vaccination as a conspiracy to develop infertility among the people. However, Dr Sajjad dismissed all such notions, saying that the vaccination did not develop infertility at all.

He added that Covid jabs could have “very minor side effects” like slight fever among some people, especially those having a weak immune system. He added that there was no death reported from Covid vaccines in Pakistan so far, which showed there was no harm from the vaccination.

Naeem Qureshi, President of the National Forum for Environment and Health Karachi, said that conspiracy theories, rumours and mis/disinformation about Covid-19 vaccines were circulating not only in Pakistan but also across the world that created a vaccine hesitancy among many people.

To combat the pandemic, the federal government had constituted the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) to synergise and articulate unified national effort and to implement the decisions of National Coordination Committee (NCC) on Covid-19.

Planning Minister Asad Umar, who also heads the NCOC, had repeatedly warned that Omicron variant was spreading fast therefore, the people must get the vaccine shots stressing that vaccination was the best defence against the infectious virus.

Dr Mariangela Simao, the World Health Organisation (WHO) assistant-director general for access to medicines and health products, agreed. “Even with new variants’ arrival, vaccines remain one of the most effective tools to protect people against serious illness and death from SARS-COV-2,” she said.