The Cebu City vaccination program in the mountain barangays has hit a wall. To use another idiom, for those assigned to convince these residents, it has been an uphill battle.
The latest development on the City’s vaccination program against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), according to a SunStar Cebu report, is that government workers assigned to the mountain barangays are having a difficult time in convincing residents to get inoculated. The report described it as “an uphill battle” for them.
Over the weekend, City Hall opened a vaccination site in Barangay Bonbon for residents of Barangays Bonbon, Babag, Pung-ol Sibugay, Sudlon 1, Sudlon 2, Buot Taup and Malubog. Another vaccination site at the Don Bosco Technical College in Barangay Punta Princesa was set up for residents of Barangays Buhisan, Toong, Pamutan and Sapangdaku. Cebu City has 22 mountain barangays with 45,283 of the residents registered for the vaccination program.
But reports from City Government workers showed that even those registered have expressed hesitation in actually getting vaccinated. Some of them were even insulted by residents who insisted they not get inoculated. Their fears were based on the Dengvaxia scare, information they got about the vaccines not being effective and even causing death, and claims that the Covid-19 was not real. The Dengvaxia controversy has led to distrust of vaccines as the dengue fever vaccine was alleged to have caused severe symptoms on children who received it.
How do you convince mountain residents to have themselves vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus? Articles on vaccine hesitancy have shown that forcing or shaming people into getting vaccinated is the least effective way of convincing them. Requiring them by law or by company order will not change the mind of most skeptics. Shaming them would not be wise too.
Based on studies, here are the ways people decided to get vaccinated: They read or watched it in the news that the vaccine was the best protection they could get for now. They wanted to see family members and friends they have not connected with for over a year. They wished to travel. They were bent on getting back to work.
After I got my first dose, I posted a photo of me on Facebook. Not a photo of the needle piercing my arm but of me doing a double thumbs up with a note that said I was looking forward to being with loved ones again. I was able to convince at least five others who saw my Facebook post. I helped with their registration or with their appointments. I suggested at one point that vaccination centers have a photographer or someone ready to assist people in taking their photos or video while getting vaxxed.
It would help too if those to be inoculated got a free ride to the vaccination center and a snack.
There are more ways for the City Government to try to convince skeptics in the mountain barangays. It will just need a more personal approach and persistence.