The much-touted and anticipated Covid-19 vaccine is finally here and has been rolled out. President Lazarus Chakwera and Saulos Chilima got the first jabs, in a way, the two also intended to parry away fears, misconceptions and myths surrounding the Covid-19 vaccine.
This is good news except that there is still a distressing number of Malawians, including some health workers, who are still uncertain about whether they will get vaccinated. Before this, many Malawians and other citizens from developing countries worldwide were worried whether the vaccine will reach the remotest corner of the world in time. Well, now a good number of developing countries have received their first batches of the vaccine and have already rolled it out.
There are Malawians still on the fence or unlikely to be vaccinated as some say they want to wait and see how the vaccine works while others have made up their mind that come what may, they will not be vaccinated. Experts in this area suggest that there is a need for a substantial percentage of the population that should be vaccinated in order to reach what they call “herd immunity”—the indirect protection from an infectious disease that happens when a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity developed through previous infection.
Looking at how Covid-19 has devastated Malawi, one would be excused for thinking that everyone would be willing to be vaccinated. But then, Malawians have an uncanny tendency of being suspicious, oftentimes, for no reason, like it is in this case.
Vaccine hesitancy has many causes, not least among them is cultural and religious beliefs that most people in this “God fearing” country hold so dearly. The other cause is the lack of clear information from authorities to the people on the vaccine.
Even now that the vaccine has been rolled out, there are still so many information gaps about the vaccine, including a clear roll-out plan. This is despite that in this country there is a whole ministry mandated for civic educating the masses and a whole ministry of information that seems to be sleeping on the job.
The lack of adequate sensitisation has led to the mixed messaging and discussions in many forums about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine—whether the vaccine works, whether it protects against Covid-19 or does it mean once one gets vaccinated, they can now stop wearing face masks and social distancing?
The answer to these questions would appear quite obvious for some, it is not so obvious to a majority of Malawians. This is where one would expect the government to go full-throttle with and sensitisation messaging aimed at among others, parrying away the myths and misconceptions towards the vaccine.
At this stage, this country cannot afford to have even a single person not vaccinated. The cost of that is higher than having everyone vaccinated. To borrow from the words of UN’s Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, “nobody is safe until everyone is safe”. Hence, the need for us all to get vaccinated.