More than 70% of SA wants the jab, but vaccine hesitancy a needling problem
Most South Africans would get a Covid-19 vaccine if they could, a new study shows, and the flood of healthcare workers and illegitimate queue jumpers to vaccination sites last week seems to underscore this finding.
But vaccine hesitancy may be higher than these developments suggest.
The “National Income Dynamics Study – Coronavirus Rapid Mobile” (NIDS-CRAM) study, released on Wednesday, found 71% of people were willing to take a vaccine.
But it was conducted in February and March, before the mid-april pause of the Sisonke implementation study, which has been giving healthcare workers early access to J&J vaccinations.
The pause of the Sisonke study to investigate very rare and unusual blood clots caused by J&J shots undermined confidence in vaccines.
Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa, vicechairperson of the SA Medical Association, said on Friday:
“This pause contributed to vaccine hesitancy even among some members and in the community, where people were asking why we were using the vaccine given the finding in the US.”
The Durban-based doctor, who works in the private and public sectors, questioned SA’S decision to follow the US in pausing the J&J vaccinations: “We rushed into this and that was unnecessary.”
The extremely rare blood clots were detected in six out of 6.8 million people who got the J&J jab, and after investigation J&J vaccinations resumed in the US and SA.
Before the two-week suspension on April 13, healthcare workers were streaming in for their shots, but when vaccinations resumed on April 27, they found demand had dropped.
Prof Glenda Gray, co-principal investigator of the study, said at the time: “We have seen an increase in vaccine hesitancy. Before the pause we were inundated, but it has affected our uptake. It impacted on confidence, and there is a lot more hesitancy.”
The fall in demand last week allowed Sisonke to broaden its definition of healthcare workers who would qualify for the vaccination from Monday to Saturday.
The expanded definition resulted in people streaming to vaccination sites, including people who did not qualify for the jab and were gaming the system.
Mzukwa said their members had rushed to sites “in numbers, realising this was the end” of Sisonke, and to protect themselves before a third wave of Covid.
He has already had his J&J shot. “I had pain in the injection site, my left deltoid and fever of 39 degrees that night, so I took two Panado. In the morning I had a bit of malaise, then I was fine.”
Mzukwa advised people to avoid social media unless the source of the information had been verified.
“Usually what people say is not based on evidence,” he said of social media platforms, which have been fuelling vaccine hesitancy.
How can health communication address hesitancy?
This important question was tackled by Prof Uma Kollamparambil and Dr Adeola Oyenubi from the School of Economics and Finance at Wits University, along with Dr Chijioke Nowsu from the Human Sciences Research Council.
“Vaccine acceptance is lower than that of nonpharmaceutical interventions,” say the researchers, whose work was published in the latest synthesis report of the NIDS-CRAM. “Only 55% are fully accepting of the vaccine, while a further 16% are moderately accepting of vaccines.”
Together, vaccine acceptance is estimated at 70.8% and hesitancy estimated at 29.2% among the adult population in SA.
The researchers say addressing hesitancy means focusing on “the reasons cited for it”, the main ones of which are “the possible negative side effects and ineffectiveness of vaccines”.
About 10% are also hesitant as they do not perceive themselves to be at risk of getting Covid-19.
Kollamparambil and her fellow researchers say “more information from the scientific studies on the possible side effects” could curb misinformation that circulates on social media.
Individuals could thus “make more informed judgments based on risk-benefit assessments”.
Also, “targeted communication” plays an important role.
For example, since young people and low-income groups perceive the risk of getting Covid-19 to be low, “risk messaging needs to be targeted” at them specifically.
Likewise, “non-blacks and religious individuals” have the lowest belief in vaccine efficacy, and thus “there is an all-round need to enhance vaccine efficacy-related messaging” that specifically targets these groups.
Over 91% report that religion plays an important role in their life, and as such, say the researchers, “our results show that efficacy communication through religious leaders and institutions would be effective”.