Ex-Health chief calls for bigger role for health care providers in COVID-19 vaccine campaign

MANILA, Philippines — Health care providers play a major role in the government’s information campaign on Covid-19 vaccines since they are more trusted than politicians or lawyers, a former Health chief said Thursday.

Former Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral, who served under the Arroyo administration, said building public confidence on Covid-19 vaccines is also an “issue of trust on the information giver.”

“Vaccine confidence is not only an issue of accurate and timely information but of trust in the information giver,” she said in a Palace briefing.

“I think that our healthcare providers should be playing a major role in the information campaign because they are the ones most trusted by the people when they deliver health information. I think they [public] will believe health care providers more than they would believe politicians or attorneys,” Cabral said.

Cabral said vaccine hesitancy in the Philippines started in 2018 in light of the Dengvaxia controversy.

She also cited a recent survey spearheaded by University of Santo Tomas researchers, showing that nine out of 10 Filipinos have many concerns about the Covid-19 vaccines.

The results of the survey showed respondents were worried about the Covid-19 vaccines’ safety (91.7%), efficacy (90.3%), and high cost (82.3%).

Almost all of the respondents are also worried about fake vaccines (98%), vaccines being made too quickly (80.2%), vaccines not tested properly (83.5%), and ineffective vaccines against variants (84.5%).

Cabral said a piece of massive information and trust campaign is needed to win the public’s trust and convince them to get vaccinated.

“Una sa malaking dapat nating gawin ay malaking information campaign at malaking trust campaign para ang ating mga tao ay magkaroon ng kumpiyansa na mahusay ang magpabakuna kaysa sa hindi magpabakuna,” she said.

(One of the major things that need to be done is a piece of massive information and trust campaign so that the public will have confidence that it is better to get vaccinated than not.)

The national government, which is aiming to immunize at least 70 million of the population, is set to start its vaccine roll out in February.

EDV