Know facts of Covid-19 vaccine

RECORDS at the Papua New Guinea National Control Centre show that only 16,459 people have received the Covid-19 vaccine – AstraZeneca.
As of last Friday, 12pm, PNG’s confirmed cases stood at 15,133, of which, 14,108 have recovered while 871 are still recorded as active cases.
Total number of tested conducted is 110,286.
Death records are at 154.
The vaccination roll-out programme started last month after PNG received its first batch 132,000 doses from the Covax Facility arrangement.
Earlier, PNG received 8,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine donated by the Australian government and specifically for frontline health workers and other essential service providers at the head of the battle against the coronavirus in the country.
Unfortunately, despite knowing the importance of immunisation and taking vaccination, misinformation about the Covid-19 on social media had influenced the decision of many health workers who have not received the vaccine yet.
Immunisation is a process by which a person becomes protected against a disease through vaccination.
Vaccination is the act of introducing a vaccine into the body to produce immunity to a specific disease.
A vaccine is a type of medicine that trains the body’s immune system so that it can fight a disease it has not come into contact with before.
Vaccines are designed to prevent disease rather than treat a disease once you have caught it.
And that is what the Covid-19 vaccine does.
Unfortunately, what they read or hear is already creating fear.
It is understandable that will be confusion, anxiety and fear among the public during this trying time.
Of the more than 16,000 people vaccinated – only 3,618 health workers received their vaccines while 12,481 make up the other essential.
As of last week, of the 532 workers in the National Capital District health authority only 50 had been vaccinated.
The roll-out of the first lot of doses is a test case and we hope with more people stepping forward to take the vaccination, it eradicates any uncertainty on the vaccine.
It is already a challenge for authorities as they battle against the vaccine hesitancy – something which is already a serious hurdle.
Unfortunately, these factors will not help to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
In times like this, everyone should be working together.
We all need to be intentional and thoughtful when communicating on social media and other communication platforms, showing supportive behaviours around the Covid-19.
As they say, you only get to make a first impression once, so it’s very critical that the communication and engagement with the community is right first time.
We agree with World Vision Australia chief executive officer Daniel Wordsworth that trust is paramount especially during the Covid-19 vaccination roll-out programme.
“From experience, World Vision knows that building trust is critical to the success of any immunisation programme and in the Pacific, that means using trusted figures in the community,” he said.
“People like faith leaders.
“It is critical that this initial rollout is done right, and for our part, we are going to throw everything at it.
“We know from our on-ground staff that vaccine hesitancy is a significant issue and could present the major barrier to combatting the spread of the virus.”
Let’s share facts and accurate information about the Covid-19.
We have said this and will continue to stress on it that many of our people who don’t have much education are gullible to whatever information is spread.
The way we communicate can affect the attitude of others.