Misinformation affecting roll-out of vaccinations

MISINFORMATION and speculation on social media continue to affect the roll-out of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccinations and regular childhood immunisation programmes in Central, an official says.
Central health authority chief executive officer Dr James Amini said it was inevitable that his province would be impacted by the Covid-19 because of its proximity to the National Capital District (NCD).
He said while cases in NCD were stabilising, Central could see an uptick in positive cases making vaccination and other measures crucial to protect the most vulnerable members of the population.
“With the misinformation being spread on around the social media, this is making it very hard for the roll-out programme in the community,” he said.
Dr Amini said in a radio interview last week that distrust of the Covid-19 vaccination programme had also included a suspicion of other health programmes such as immunisation for children as people were thinking the two programmes were the same.
“My biggest worry is if this continues and children do not receive immunisation shots, this could lead to outbreaks of measles or other infections, we might have an epidemic.”
He said Central’s health facilities needed to be improved in order for the province to reduce the dependence on hospitals in the NCD. Dr Amini said Central had more than 40 health centres that were in a run-down state and needed maintenance.