DAVAO CITY –– City officials are fighting people’s distrust of the vaccines by going to the villages and explaining to the people the science and use against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Councilor Mary Joselle Villafuerte said the city had been trying to counter disinformation that had spread fast on social media.
“We have to put the right information out there because there are lots of lies, disinformation on social media, and people tend to believe that,” Villafuerte said, expressing surprise at the level of vaccine resistance at the barangay level.
“They’re not even asking questions. They just tell you outright they don’t want their names listed because they don’t want to be vaccinated,” Villafuerte said of her initial encounter with people in two villages in Calinan district here.
She said no one was forcing them to be vaccinated if they did not want it but urged them to keep an open mind. It was when she started discussing how the vaccines worked and why these were deemed safe despite the speed of production and development that people began to reconsider.
“That’s why it is very important that we do the first batch of vaccination very well because this will boost the confidence of people to get the shots,” said Villafuerte, a medical doctor.
People whose names were in the master list would still undergo pre-vaccination counseling, where they would be informed how the vaccine works and they could ask questions. Only if they decide to get the vaccine would they be asked to sign their informed consent, she added.
Villafuerte said that even the national survey in the police force showed that only 30 percent of police personnel would be willing to have themselves vaccinated.
“But I told them, it would still take time before their turn comes, so just watch how the first vaccination would go,” she said.
First in line for vaccination would be the healthcare frontline workers, the senior citizens, and the indigents, before the uniformed personnel.
That’s why, she said it was important that the city—and even the whole country—should do the first batch of the vaccination right because that would be the only way to boost people’s confidence in the vaccine.
“I continue to monitor all simulation exercises because I know vaccine acceptance will increase if the first batch of vaccination is successful,” Villafuerte said, referring to the first two simulation exercises conducted here that is aimed at perfecting the delivery and handling of the vaccine.
“Right now, I concentrate on the puroks (communities) in Calinan. Mababa po ang acceptance sa ngayon,” (The acceptance level for the vaccine, for now, is low), but after their questions have been answered and clarified, people’s attitude started improving), she said
She said she visited Marilog over the weekend and planned to go to Toril and Mintal villages the following week. She also urged the Department of Health to help launch an information campaign in the barangays to educate the people about the benefits of being vaccinated.
“We have been following this up, we have been praying for this,” she said, referring to the development and eventual production, and now the expected arrival of the first batch of vaccines in the country.
“But now that the vaccine is here, walang magpabakuna (no one wants to be vaccinated)?” she said.