Parents skeptical about kids’ jabs

Anti-Covid drive launched in schools without awareness campaign

LAHORE:

The Punjab health authorities may face difficulties in achieving their target of 4.8 million children’s Covid-19 vaccination in five districts of the province as a number of parents and even school administrators are reportedly hesitant to allow inoculation of kids.

According to sources, especially private schools are facing difficulty in persuading parents for the vaccination of minor students. Many parents apparently are avoiding to send their children to school due to apprehensions about the vaccination.

Private schools’ administrators say they had not been taken into confidence while starting the vaccination and no awareness campaign had been launched to allay the apprehensions of parents.

They said they could not take the responsibility of vaccinating the children without the consent of their parents.

Sources in the health department said the officials concerned had not expected hesitation by the parents regarding the vaccination.

The department has started children’s vaccination against oronavirus in the Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan, Okara and Bahawalpur districts, setting a target of inoculating 4.8 million children aged five to 12 years in the first phase.

The provincial government had earlier vaccinated around 92 million people.

Now another phase of vaccination has been started with the focus on the children for moving ahead towards the target of a ‘coronavirus-free Punjab’.

“The health department has set up 6,586 outreach and 773 fixed sites at the five districts to achieve the target of vaccinating 4.8 million kids. Our special focus will be on government and private schools, gypsies’ settlements and madrassas. Our outreach teams will play a major role in the campaign,” an official said while speaking to The Express Tribune.

He said apprehensions on the part of the parents had been reported as more prevalent than expected earlier but it was a fact that the best way for the people, including children, to remain safe was vaccination.

The official conceded that the issue are related to awareness.

He said a large number of students were getting the vaccine in schools and the vaccination teams were busy in their work but meeting the target of reaching 4.8 million children in the five districts might be difficult if all parents could not be convinced for the purpose.

The president of All Pakistan Schools Management Association, Kashif Adeeb Jawadani, said, “Only a day before the start of the campaign, we were informed regarding kids’ vaccination at schools. It was not possible to convince parents in this short time and we are also not in a position to take the blame in case of any reaction. It is clear that we can cooperate but we cannot force parents to allow the vaccination. No awareness campaign was started at schools to convince parents and students.”

A female head of a private school said a large number of parents had sent her messages that they did not want their children to get the vaccine. “We have to obey the parents,” she said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2022.