WATCH: Covid-19 vaccine comms needs rethink

Like so many things with Sars-CoV-2,sadly the issue of vaccine hesitancy is complex. Because SA, and indeed the world, is facing a still rapidly spreading and mutating virus, the issue appears to be less now about vaccine access and equity than about overcoming a clear lack of public confidence in not only the vaccine, but in government, experts and the media.

The early wavering and missteps of the World Health Organisation (WHO) certainly didn’t help when it originally claimed the virus wasn’t airborne and masks didn’t help — then doing a 180-degree turn. Next came the clamping down on the genesis of the virus out of Wuhan,where the Chinese have their Institute of Virology lab, which again shrouded Covid-19 with scepticism, doubt, nefarious agendas and many spook and conspiracy theories.

So right from the start there was a huge job to educate and separate fact from fiction. We have had presidents like Trump and Bolsanaro offering cures such as Hydroxychloroquine, a guy like Fauci allegedly involved behind the scenes with other “interests”, Ivermectin as a cure and then a host of anti-vaxx doctors and organisations.

So it’s no wonder people are confused and fearful. It hasn’t helped either that much of the money for an effective media and communications campaign in SA was chowed by Digital Vibes. The question is: what can be done about? I’ve had my Pfizer jab. I’m not finding the 5G signal all that great and I certainly didn’t have a single side effect

To talk about this, Michael Avery is joined by Dr Kerrigan McCarthy, Pathologist: Centre for Vaccines and Immunology at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, Dr Stavros Nicolaou, head of the health working group for B4SA, and Jane Simmonds, projectmanager at the SA Medical Research Council.