EDITORIAL | Those perpetuating vaccine hesitancy are putting lives at risk

“Vaccines are safe, effective and probably the game-changers in terms of getting us beyond Covid-19.” 

This is the message from Granville Whittle, the acting director-general of the basic education department. He was talking about vaccine hesitancy among teachers whose vaccination rollout is set to start on Wednesday. Whittle said a survey by five teacher unions in January showed 52% of teachers wanted to be vaccinated. This had risen to 76% by June.

Even if the latter number is true, that means there are still more than 20% — or a fifth — of teachers opposed to getting the vaccine.

Those educators cannot call for schools to be shut down because they fear for their own health but at the same time, when they are offered a real, scientific solution in the form of a vaccination, turn it down. That is irresponsible not only towards themselves but also their pupils, their colleagues and their friends and families. 

Teachers refusing to be vaccinated will have to return to school, Whittle added, and rightly so.

But vaccine hesitancy is not only a concern among teachers; it is a wider problem.

We have six to eight people here dying every day of Covid-19 but we can’t get people to come for their vaccinations. The queues are empty.

—  Dr Nicholas Pearce, head of the Covid-19 task force at the Universitas Academic Hospital

A survey released in May, the National Income Dynamics Study — Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (Nids-Cram), showed that 71% of SA adults would be willing to take the vaccine. Vaccine acceptance here remains higher than in the US and France. Yet as we stagger through the third wave of infections, reports of apathy are cause for serious concern.

Volksblad newspaper in Bloemfontein this week quoted the head of the Covid-19 task force at the Universitas Academic Hospital, Dr Nicholas Pearce, as saying he felt like crying out of desperation. “We have six to eight people here dying every day of Covid-19 but we can’t get people to come for their vaccinations. The queues are empty.”

At the moment, vaccinators at this Bloemfontein site are going into the hospital at the end of the day with unused but already opened vials to vaccinate some of the patients, so that the doses do not have to be thrown away.

Misinformation about the risks associated with the vaccine is not only on social media but is being shared anecdotally. It is one thing to debunk a myth spread on Facebook but it becomes a whole different story when educated people who others look up to — such as teachers and doctors — declare vaccines dangerous.

“We have a medical doctor who is busy dying of Covid-19. He only used ivermectin and  hydrochloric acid to treat it and did not believe in vaccines,” said Pearce.

It is the responsibility of our teachers and medical professionals to spread the message that vaccines offer an extra protective layer against the virus. While our government continues to communicate pro-vaccine messages, people tend to trust the opinions of those they know. The task to carry that message is huge, and the duty to defend it in any conversation or setting is undeniable.