Raising awareness, confidence in vaccine needed – Go

MANILA, Philippines — A whole-of-nation approach is needed to raise public awareness and confidence in COVID-19 vaccines, as many Filipinos remain hesitant to get inoculated due to wrong perceptions and baseless concerns, according to Sen. Bong Go.

As chairman of the Senate committee on health, Go said that in order to accelerate vaccine rollout and help the country attain herd immunity soon, the public must be given the right information and assurance that vaccines are safe, effective and necessary to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.

Go welcomed initiatives by various groups to encourage Filipinos to get vaccinated, saying that government must explore more creative ways to raise public confidence as it prepares to implement the next phases of the vaccination rollout.

In an interview on Friday after the separate launch of the 115th and 116th Malasakit Centers at the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital and Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center, both in Sta. Cruz, Manila City, Go noted that many countries are offering incentives to convince the people to get vaccinated.

“It’s good,” he said of granting incentives. “There are different ways to convince our countrymen. If we can find ways to convince them, why not? In other countries, they offer lottery or raffle tickets. In America, they offer incentives,” he said in Filipino.

He further explained that getting more people vaccinated is one of the best ways to push others to overcome their hesitancy. He warned that vaccine hesitancy is a real threat to public health and stressed the need for strategies to combat the fear among some Filipinos.

“Our concern here is to earn the trust of the people. If people are seen convinced of vaccination, many others would be encouraged to get vaccinated. Many are just taking a cue from others,” he said.

“Don’t be afraid of vaccination because it’s our only solution to this pandemic,” he added.

A robust information campaign, spearheaded by the government, is necessary for building vaccine confidence and sustaining the public’s cooperation as it would address concerns on fake news and misinformation, the senator said.

He recalled visiting towns in Laguna, Batangas and other provinces where ordinary people were not keen on getting vaccinated. “So we need to encourage them if they want normalcy to return.”

Attaining herd immunity at the community level, he explained, is critical to ending the ongoing pandemic and that means having anywhere from 60 to 90 percent of the population vaccinated.

He said achieving herd immunity may require the vaccination of at least half of the population. “If we don’t achieve this, coronavirus will further spread,” he added.

“So it’s very important that we get vaccinated because those inoculated will not have severe case of COVID-19,” he maintained. “What’s important here is the life of every Filipino.”