More info drives to shore up trust in vaccines

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

 

Barangay officials in Iloilo City vowed to conduct more information drives to increase public acceptance and trust in the Covid-19 vaccine.

Punong Barangay Roberto Niño Jr., vice president and spokesperson of the Liga ng mga Barangay in Iloilo City, said the level of hesitancy towards Covid-19 vaccines is indeed high, even in their village in Calumpang, Molo.

Earlier, the Iloilo City government reported that only 29% of city residents who were asked to fill up vaccination consent forms agreed to receive the Covid-19 jabs.

Based on information from the City Hall, 6,863, or 71% of the 9,731 individuals who filled up consent forms hesitated to receive the vaccines even if these are for free.

The consent forms were distributed to 88 barangays in early February in preparation for the roll out of the AstraZeneca (AZD1222) vaccines which the city government will purchase and administer later this year.

Niño told Aksyon Radyo-Iloilo that the same trend was observed in Calumpang, with less than 30% of the residents who filled up the form willing to be inoculated.

He said their barangay operations center against Covid-19 conducts information campaign on the vaccines to educate their constituents.

“We will increase our information dissemination efforts by printing pamphlets containing accurate information about the vaccines,” he added.