Vaccine hesitancy stymies Covid fight

Inoculation campaign has not taken off while coronavirus cases have spread like lightning

PESHAWAR:

With the Omicron variant of the coronavirus spreading like wildfire, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government’s focus on booster shots is misplaced given the province’s struggle with convincing the majority of its population to get their first jab.

The provincial government opened up facilities for its residents to receive the booster dose against Covid-19 towards the end of last year - with priority being given to those above 50 years of age, immunocompromised individuals, and healthcare workers - many however are still reluctant to get their first dose, let alone the booster shots, officials associated with K-P’s vaccination campaign informed.

The vaccine hesitancy in the province is troubling in light of the superspreaders infections’ drastic upsurge, as at least 331 people contracted Covid-19 in K-P during the past 24 hours, taking the total number of confirmed cases in the province to 182,950.

“I do not know what else the government can do to convince people to get inoculated. The general public will be responsible for any mishap in the future, not the government,” said a senior health official, who is part of the vaccination campaign. The official who requested anonymity since he was not entitled to speak to the media, stated that every single citizen required vaccination as refusing it would derail the province’s efforts in curtailing the virus and would wreak havoc.

Commenting on the province’s vaccine hesitancy, Advisor to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on Infectious Diseases, Dr Ayub Roz, questioned, “I do not know why question the vaccine when we can already see what this virus has done to the entire world?” He opined that it seemed like the entire world was on one side but those refusing vaccination were in a world of their own.

Sensitization issue

However, recently the province has seen an uptick in some segments of the population requesting booster shots, particularly people who are familiar with the chaos the superspreader causes, “The ratio is low but it is encouraging,” said a vaccinator at the Medical Teaching Institute (MTI) Lady Reading Hospital. He stated that the response so far was against their expectations. “There was a time when people would question vaccination but now we have seen some aged people visiting us for booster shots,” he added.

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Farooq Shah, a resident of the city, who had lined up for his booster does, said, “this is not a joke, yes you see many people reluctant and some are even protesting against inoculation but the virus should be taken seriously.”

Similarly, Muhammad Younas Khan, who has been avoiding crowd and recently got his booster shot, said, “I am 76 and I got my booster as it helps your immunity. What else do you need when your immunity is strong enough to counter this fatal viral infection?”

Roz, who is also the former Director General Health Services K-P, however, does not agree that the inoculation campaign stumbling is a sensitization issue. “What more sensitization do you need when you see newspapers, televisions, and social media websites constantly telling you that getting inoculated is the only way out?” he asked. Roz was of the view that given the current vaccination numbers of the province in which roughly only 40% of the population was vaccinated, it was hard to imagine the virus leaving anytime soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2022.