Misunderstanding of term sees vaccine hesitancy, leader says

By LORRAINE JIMAL
A leader in Port Moresby says vaccine hesitancy and confusion has been brought about in part by misunderstanding of the term “vaccination”.
Motu Koita Assmebly chairman Dadi Toka Jnr said his people were familiar with the terms “immunisation” but were distrustful of the vaccines to protect them against the Coronavirus (Covid-19).
He said efforts were being undertaken to tell people that vaccines were like immunisation and there was no need to fear them.
Toka said parents were happy to take their children to get immunisation shots for several kinds of infections but did not want to get vaccinated, even though it was essentially the same thing.
He said it was concerning that adults were accepting immunisation but at the same time suspicious of the vaccines to protect them against the Covid-19.
“What concerns me is that how we word it as not many of us use the term ‘vaccination’, in Motu, there is no term for vaccination and in Koita, there is no term for it,” he said.
Toka said this at a United Church members meeting for its Moresby North-West church leaders Covid-19 vaccine awareness.
He said the challenge was to get the right word and message across to the people for them to understand and come forward to get vaccinated.
Toka said Port Moresby needed to be the leader in terms of numbers of people getting vaccinated but this was not so and people needed to realise the need for as many people to be vaccinated to safeguard the population.