Media critical in vaccine uptake

THE medical journey has been appalling, astounding and agonising since the outbreak of the coronavirus in 2019. Life has never been the same since then with a new world order that brought what seemed to be bizarre and incredible measures which include the wearing of masks, social distancing, banning of gatherings among many other measures. So far, at least 2,6 million people have succumbed to the deadly virus while at least 117 million have been infected. The threat of the virus is still there but at least we are in a better position now as we have managed to contain the more virulent second wave which terrorised the world.

Pandemics can have a very serious impact if people become complacent or get relaxed about what ought to be done. Public health measures should, therefore, remain in place until we are satisfied that the virus is gone.

Who knows how many waves we are going to get? The 1918-20 Spanish flu came in four waves while both the Asian and Hong Kong flues came in two phases.

It is an open secret that the latter pandemics (Asian and Hong Kong) were managed better than the Spanish flu of 1918 because of a number of factors which include the availability of vaccines, advanced technology, information dissemination and global peace.

The Asian flu outbreak started in Singapore in February 1957 and by April of the same year, had already reached Hong Kong.

At least four million people died due to the H2N2 virus. It was not long before American microbiologist, Maurice Hilleman, made an amazing vaccine.

By August 1957, the vaccine was already in use and both morbidity and mortality started to face down.

The same microbiologist made a vaccine in 1968 Hong Kong flu outbreak, bringing the pandemic to an end. Today, technology is advanced and many people can now access as much information as they can.

However, we ought to be worried about misinformation and disinformation. So much has been said about the Sinopharm vaccine that we are utilising.

Conspiracy theories have been thrown around and some of them have sent shivers down the spines of many people, resulting in poor vaccine uptake.

Herd immunity needs to be achieved against the COVID-19 and vaccinating only a small fraction of the population will not achieve the desired immunity.

For the world to achieve herd immunity against measles, 95% of all the children have to be immunised against it while polio requires 80% of the population to be vaccinated in order to triumph over it.

It is, therefore, imperative that the media should continue playing its role of disseminating the correct information, educating masses and promoting health. Media can be classified into four categories namely, print, broadcast, outdoor and internet.

Failure to take the right and veracious information to the intended audience is not only calamitous but sadistic.

The population needs protection from viruses like COVID-19 and one of the measures to contain the virus is vaccination.

Whether one makes use of messenger RNA vaccines like Pfizer, Moderna or vector vaccines like Astrazeneca, Sinopharm, Sinovac, Sputnik V, depends on one’s choice.

Media should shun misinformation and disinformation. It is my belief that when a medical story is being written in a newspaper, views and advice should be sought from those with medical knowledge.

So far, at least 350 people are said to have died after vaccination, with Germany recording 113 deaths.

However, investigations have pointed to coincidental deaths in many of the cases with most of them emanating from preexisting diseases like poorly-controlled hypertension, diabetes mellitus, therefore, leaving no correlation between vaccination and deaths in many of these so-called deaths.

Accurate and verified information should be reported in order to avoid scaring away people who might be interested in the vaccination process.

Social media was awash last week with the story of a Gutu health worker who was said to have died a week after receiving the first dose of the vaccine.

It was an unfortunate incident to lose a life while trying to protect it.

This can be treated possibly as a case of adverse reaction to the vaccine or just mere coincidental death as a result of a stroke because we were told the man had uncontrolled hypertension.

The story resulted in many patients enquiring whether they could go ahead with vaccination.

The answer was a simple “yes’ as we need to protect the whole nation.

Achieving herd immunity to COVID-19 is the way to go and we ought to strive to achieve it.

Deterrent messages are not good for everyone as shunning the vaccination process does not augur well for public health.

The ball is in our court. It is our health and no one knows whether we will get a third wave or not.

Health education via media houses is key in pandemic fights. We need correct information dissemination for the betterment of our healthy future.

Together, we will conquer!