Hinimok ng mga eksperto sa kalusugan ang mga policymaker na ipagpatuloy ang paglaban sa maling impormasyon tungkol sa Covid-19 vaccines dahil makatutulong ito sa pagkumbinsi sa mga tao, na nag-aalangan pa ring kumuha ng bakuna.
Dapat ipagpatuloy ng mga opisyal ng gobyerno na bigyang-diin ang kahalagahan ng mga bakuna, sabi ni Dr. Rontgene Solante, pinuno ng Adult Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Unit ng San Lazaro Hospital sa Maynila.
“The challenge here in the Philippines and most likely in the Asia Pacific Region is the vaccine hesitancy. And in fact, the booster uptake here in the Philippines [is] really low,” ani Solante sa isang round table discussion na inorganisa ng Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) at Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) noong Miyerkules, Abril 27.
“And this is driven by much vaccine hesitancy in terms of the adverse events, in terms of waning immunity, and some of these people have less confidence in getting the booster,” dagdag niya.
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Batay sa dashboard ng pagbabakuna ng gobyerno ng Pilipinas, 66.9 milyong Pilipino na ngayon ang ganap na nabakunahan laban sa Covid-19 ngunit 12.9 milyong tao lamang ang nakakuha ng kanilang ikatlong dosis o booster shot.
Ang pag-aalangan sa bakuna ay hindi lamang makikita sa Pilipinas kundi maging sa Thailand, sabi ni Dr. Sunate Chuenkitmongkol ng Thailand National Vaccine Institute.
“We also have a problem [with] vaccine hesitancy. Like in the Philippines as well, we found that the booster acceptance is low when compared to the primary vaccination. People think that if they receive two doses, it is enough—and don’t want to get anymore,” aniya.
“Even though we have coverage in primary series of up to 80 percent now, and even if we have the Omicron, the third dose acceptance for even the elderly is only 40 percent. You will see a big gap even if we tried a lot of performance to provide the booster of vaccines for the population,” dagdag niya.
Inulit ni Solante na lahat ng uri ng bakuna ay maaaring magbigay ng kinakailangang proteksyon laban sa matinding anyo ng Covid-19.
“This data is very important, communicating [to] them the importance that vaccines really work. It really works in protecting us against severe infection, protecting us against hospitalization— which are the two most important clinical outcomes that we want to prevent among our population,” ani Solante.
“It is important that policymakers continue to build vaccine confidence [in] the public… In the first year, there were vaccine preferences that if you have a higher utilizing antibody, you are better protected but based on the data, all of these vaccines whether it is a mRNA or virus-vector it has good protection against hospitalization and death,” dagdag niya.
Analou de Vera
