PSB Pujut: Adopt measures to overcome vaccination hesitancy
MIRI: The authorities should think outside the box and adopt effective measures to overcome vaccination hesitancy in Sarawak as it could derail the goal of achieving herd community to stop the spread of Covid-19 infections.
PSB northern zone in a statement yesterday said an analysis of the problem of eleventh hour withdrawal by registered vaccine recipients should be undertaken to uncover the reasons behind this development
“Should a high percentage of Sarawakians who have registered decide to withdraw due to last last minute jitters, we could very well be heading towards an endless road,” warned PSB Pujut chairman Bruce Chai in a statement yesterday.
He agreed that the ongoing vaccination was well organised but there were also reports of registered recipients failing to turn up for inoculation as scheduled.
Chai said the reasons cited included feeling unwell on the day of their appointment, trouble with transportation, last minute hesitation and others, which was of concern as Sarawak could only achieve herd immunity with the inoculation of 2.2 million eligible adult population.
According to the National Vaccination Programme Database, only 1,124,241 persons have registered for Covid-19 vaccination programme as at May 11, about half of the eligible adult population.
From survey on the ground, most of those yet to register are adopting a ‘wait-and-see’ approach due to their fear of side effects.
Chai said the authorities were not doing enough information dissemination to dispel their doubts compared to the information blitz in the old days of other vaccination programmes on TV, cinemas and posters, apart from manual distribution of flyers.
“Not everyone uses or relies on social media as their primary information platform. There is still a large segment of the community that rely on print media such as newspapers, leaflets, billboards and so forth,” he pointed out.
Chai also urged Covid-19 Advisory Group (Scovag) and SDMC to consider reversing its decision to block AstraZeneca Covid-19 Volunteer Vaccination Programme into Sarawak and decisively roll it out under the new phase of Volunteer AstraZeneca Vaccine Registration next week.