MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday urged the government to let health experts play a more active role in educating the public on the safety of coronavirus vaccines, adding that the information drive about the Covid-19 vaccination program is still lacking.
In her regular radio program Biserbisyong Leni, Robredo called for a more aggressive information campaign to address the public’s fears about the vaccination drive against the respiratory disease.
“Mababang-mababa pa rin. Mababang-mababa pa rin ‘yung confidence level ng tao sa vaccines. Tingin ko, nagkukulang tayo. Nagkukulang tayo sa pagcommunicate. Dapat sana, dapat sana parang maging aggressive ‘yung information campaign,” she said.
(It is still very low. The confidence level of people on vaccines is still very low. I think we are lacking in communicating it to the public. There should be a more aggressive information campaign.)
According to Robredo, the country would not be able to achieve herd immunity if not enough people are confident of the vaccines. Herd immunity is a concept in vaccination wherein a virus can no longer spread easily because enough people are immune to it.
Robredo noted a survey released by Pulse Asia last January, which showed that 47 percent of Filipinos do not want to be vaccinated against Covid-19 due to safety concerns.
She said it should be health experts who would give assurance on the safety of the vaccines so that the public will have more confidence in the inoculation program.
“Dapat health experts ‘yung pinapakinggan, health experts ‘yung nag-a-assure para kampante ‘yung tao,” the Vice President said.
(We should listen to health experts. Health experts should be the ones to give the assurance so that people will be more confident about the vaccines.)
‘Yung mga doktor, ‘yung mga nakakaintindi, dapat sila ‘yung naririnig. Hindi tayo, kasi tayo hindi naman tayo mga health experts. Pero ‘yung mga pinapakinggan, sila dapat ‘yung hikayatin to go out in public para i-assure ‘yung tao na safe ito,” Robredo added.
(It should be the doctors, not us, whom the public will listen to. It should not be us because we are not health experts. Those whom the people listen to should be encouraged to go out in public to assure the public that these vaccines are safe.)