Chimbu starts jab programme

The National National

By ZACHERY PER
A VACCINE advocacy programme has started in Chimbu with a senior health official maintaining that the final choice to get vaccinated is always a personal one.
Simbu health authority (PHA) chief executive officer Dr Francis Wandi said an individual had the right to decide what was in their best interest and this always had to be respected.
He said this on Friday following the advocacy programme for vaccination against the Coronavirus (Covid-19) for Kerowagi.
“The decision to get vaccinated is an individual choice that nobody can influence over the life of another person,” he said.
Dr Wandi, however, encouraged providing the community with the facts and truth regarding vaccines and the Covid-19 in order for people to be informed to make the best decisions.
“Getting the Covid-19 vaccine is voluntary and not mandatory, the decision to get jabbed or not lies on each individual,” he said.
Dr Wandi said anti-vaccine campaigners were spreading false messages through social media and confusing the people.
He said most of these people were not medical professionals or had any experience with viruses or worked in the health industry.
Dr Wandi told this to a huge crowd of people at Kerowagi town on Thursday.
He led a team comprising members of the top management of the PHA to conduct awareness on the Covid-19 and vaccines.
Dr Wandi noted that mistrust of the Covid-19 vaccines had also affected other vaccination programmes in the country particularly for child immunisation.
He said this had resulted in an outbreak of measles and whooping cough in the upper Bundi area at Snow-Pass (Madang) and Mondia Pass in upper Chimbu area.
Dr Wandi said immunisation programmes were separate from the Covid-19 vaccination.
He reiterated that the Covid-19 was real with more than 5.4 million having already died from the disease worldwide while 7.8 billion people have been vaccinated.
The PHA’s main points during the advocacy were:

  • VACCINATION is only voluntary;
  • VACCINES are not part of a conspiracy (anti-Christ-666/one world government);
  • VACCINES do not cause death after two years;
  • VACCINES are not threat to the human race; and,
  • THE Covid-19 vaccinations are no different to immunisation for babies given to protect them from diseases such as polio, measles, tetanus, hepatitis and others.