Experts attribute vaccine hesitancy to the government’s poor communication

Government’s poor communication during Covid has been one of the biggest drivers of vaccine hesitancy in SA which, according to experts, has proven the lack of trust and confidence in government, with the national department of health disposing of more than 90 000 expired Pfizer vaccines on Thursday as a result.

During a Covid communication campaigns workshop, the head of the public health and nursing school at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Prof Mosa Moshabela, said although government was preparing borders, regulations, and lockdowns, they failed to communicate with the public, which has been a trend ever since.

“In an emergency, there is no use bombarding people with information because it can easily fly over heads,” he said.

Moshabela said the big lesson he learned during that time was to not focus on the threat, but shifting the focus to understanding and communicating with the people.

“You have to tailor your message to the person, it should be people-centred communication,” he added.

“If we are not going to put in place systems to engage with citizens all the time, then we are not going to get the level of engagement we are looking for.”

However, according to Michael Currin of Government Communication Information System (GCIS), while vaccines were acceptable at a younger age because that was medical practice, the flu vaccine was not widely taken.

“The problem now is that people want to be given time to get to that psychological space to open up to getting the vaccine,” Currin said.

“ Attitudes have been tracked and continue to be tracked. Perception is: vaccination equals propaganda and encroachment on personal choice.”

He told the panel that the system had institutional and structural problems, was too reliant on social media, and overlooked the use of on-the-ground communication such as loud-hailers.

“At times it was not always possible for GCIS to control what other departments were communicating and these messages created an image of a disjointed communication structure and at times sent out conflicting messages,” Currin added.

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He also said with the Covid regulations, people had to minimise physical interaction, which meant that communication from there had to be strictly virtual and that fake news, misinformation, and myths also negatively affected the vaccine roll-out programme.

Researcher Martina Della Togna of the Covid Country Report recommended government should resort to a communications approach with humanitarian overtones, first rather than a security-driven approach.

“This emphasises public health communications principles and uses African storytelling techniques to customise generic public health messaging for a diverse South African citizenship,” she said.

“We further recommend an approach that uses integrated communications practice, recognising the diversity of language and digital access rather than a more conventional market segmentation approach used in private sector marketing conventions.”

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She also urged the government to fast-track the approval and implementation of policy initiatives designed to address the digital divide.

“And motivate for the urgent prioritisation of digitally accessible, multilingual communications with a citizen feedback loop that is both transparent and responsive,” Della Togna said.

Community Constituency Front’s Refiloe Menoe said funding was needed for community radio stations and small independent publishers to fulfil their mandate on media diversity and development to reach smaller communities in rural places.

“Citizens feel heard when different languages are used,” she said.