Build confidence in Covid-19 vaccination

As myth surrounding Covid-19 vaccination and forgery of jab cards abounds, politicians, traditional and or faith based leaders must build public confidence to address vaccine hesitancy that is causing low uptake.

Whereas Wikipedia defines a Covid 19 vaccine as a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against Covid-19; vaccine hesitancy refers to delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccination despite availability of vaccination services.

Vaccine hesitancy is complex and context specific, varying across time, place and vaccines. It is influenced by factors such as complacency, convenience and confidence.  This was arrived at by the SAGE Working Group on Vaccine Hesitancy as reported by MacDonald NE: 2015, in his article Vaccine hesitancy: Definition, scope and determinants.

In a 2021 review by Malik Sallam entitled: Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Worldwide: A Concise Systematic Review of Vaccine Acceptance Rates, published at the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine. “Vaccine acceptance among the general public and healthcare workers appears to have a decisive role in the successful control of the pandemic. The aim of his review was to provide an up-to-date assessment of COVID-19 vaccination acceptance rates worldwide.”

Bongomin, Felix et al. in “Covid-19 vaccine acceptance among high-risk populations in Uganda.” Study published by Therapeutic advances in infectious disease vol. 8, recommends that “Increased sensitization, myth busting and utilization of opinion leaders to encourage vaccine acceptability”.

I am beholden to the conclusion that it is persuasion and not compulsion that kicked polio out of Uganda. It behooves to ask then; shall it be corporal punishments, fines, imprisonment, and dismissal from work, rejection from public transport, forced vaccination or building a publically appealing message?

In my opinion, penalisation, exclusion and or banishment are not sustainable but rather increasing public faith by leading the way as the Head of state has severally done-is the miracle. This, sustained, shall counter the dissenting voices as it increases public trust as it is more compelling.  Public health communication experts must never tire of telling the public.

Be that as it may, the Omicron variant poses a new threat to already overburdened hospitals and health care workers but rapidly increasing the pace of booster vaccination could blunt the of Covid-19 impact. Tripling the pace of booster shots could reduce the expected number of Covid-19 deaths by nearly 30 percent and expected number of hospitalizations by more than 35 percent according to a study by The Commonwealth Fund researchers.

They opine; “At the status quo pace of booster vaccination, hospital admissions will peak at approximately 30,000 per day near the end of January, exceeding 20,000 hospitalizations per day for as many as six weeks. Doubling the pace of booster vaccination would reduce the peak to 25,000 per day. Tripling booster vaccinations could further reduce COVID-19 admissions to approximately 21,000 per day for a period of less than three weeks.”

With the waning immunity and changes in population behaviour as schools and businesses reopen with public service vans now allowed to operate full board, tripling inoculations of the booster dose ought to be heightened.

Boosters reinforce the wall of immunity built by previous vaccination and prior infection. Boosters appear to be highly effective at preventing severe illness and hospitalization. This translates to undisputed household income where health is wealth, as the motto for Uganda’s Ministry of Health goes.

Let us get that booster dose as we qualify to, for prevention is better than cure, better still adherence to masking up and social distancing increase better health outcomes.

Confidence building addresses covid19 Vaccination hesitancy and not Exclusion, for a word to a wise man is enough.

MrTalibita Moses is a patient rights campaigner working with Uganda National Health Consumers Organisation.
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