A bizarre kind of situation is being witnessed vis-à-vis the on going anti-Covid vaccination which needs to be addressed immediately to ensure success of ensuing immunization drive for the general public. The vaccination campaign was started on the third of this month and given the risks faced by the doctors and paramedical staff, it was decided by the government that the frontline health workers will be the first ones to get inoculation. However, it is surprising that these health workers are showing absolute reluctance to get the shots of vaccine.
In the federal capital, only seven hundred of the health workers have so far been vaccinated against the target of seven thousand.
According to the senior officials of the Health Ministry, it was estimated that from February 3 to February 15, all the frontline health workers will be vaccinated in Islamabad but unfortunately the doctors’ community and also the paramedics are resorting to wait and see policy instead of receiving jabs. The same kind of situation has also been seen in other cities including those of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. This indicates that the medical community has no trust on the efficacy and effectiveness of the vaccine. The relevant quarters must immediately come forward and clarify the whole situation.
The poor record of vaccination campaigns such as that of the ones launched against polio and its fallout is before everybody. The very posture of the health workers towards the Covid vaccine could prove to be a setback for the upcoming immunization drive to be launched for the general public in near future. Undoubtedly, our response to the pandemic has been very good, as a result of which we have been able to check both the deaths and number of cases. The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) indeed deserves appreciation for the timely decisions it took.
In the current scenario, it is important that a large scale advocacy and awareness campaign is launched to remove all sorts of misperception and misgiving about the Covid vaccine. It is also for the health workers to demonstrate maturity and get themselves vaccinated as it will prove to be a motivating factor for the general public.
