Hesitancy, conspiracies contribute to SA’s slow vaccination drive

Hesitancy and vaccination conspiracies may be to blame for the past week’s slow progress at vaccination sites.

Premier of Gauteng David Makhura yesterday visited new vaccination sites in the City of Tshwane to monitor progress and expressed his concern about the low turnout the past week.

“The last seven days were slow across the province; our numbers haven’t been doing as well as we wanted. We’ve established that men are not going to vaccination sites, 57% of the people vaccinated were women,” he said.

Makhura added the department was worried about the Johannesburg and Tshwane over-60 cohort.

“Just over 50% in the 60 year old age group have been vaccinated, which is not satisfactory because this age group is vulnerable to the virus. We have set up a ward-based war room in Tshwane and the rest of the province which worked with our community health workers to engage with community members.

“Some of their feedback was mainly around hesitancy in the over-60 age group and the conspiracy theories they believed,” he said.

Dr Jo Barnes, head of the department of global health at Stellenbosch University, said there was a large group who were unsure whether they wanted to get vaccinated as opposed to those who flatly refused.

“The latter group was not nearly as large as the hesitant group, but made a lot of noise and created a lot of damage in the minds of those who were hesitant. People were hesitant for a number of reasons; some had a fear of needles or a general fear of medical procedures,” she said.

Barnes said hesitancy occurred worldwide, particularly in countries where the trust in the government was low.

“Some are simply complacent and believe erroneously their general good health will protect them. Many are influenced by friends or family members who were hesitant themselves.”

The premier said more than 2.1 million vaccines had been administered in the province and covered about 1.7 million people.

“In Gauteng, we vaccinated 53 000-54 000 people daily, both in the public and private sector, and wanted to double that number to 100 000 vaccinations daily by introducing new vaccination sites, as well as mass vaccination sites, which could take up to 2 000 people daily.

“In Gauteng, we had 11 million adults out of 15.4 million people. We have to reach at least 70% of that figure, hence we’ve set the huge target of 100 000 vaccines daily,” said Makhura.

Head of communications at the Gauteng department of health Motalatale Modiba said there were no vaccinations that would expire soon.

The department did not lobby for the registration period for the 18-34 age groups to be moved forward.

“We were still dealing with the over 35 age group and the older age group which was still hesitant. Public health workers and community leaders went out to communities to educate people who were still skeptical and had questions,” he said.

– asandam@citizen.co.za