There have been varying degrees of sentiment across the African continent in terms of acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccines, following the roll out of COVID-19 vaccines.
This was disclosed in a press statement released by Africa Center for Disease Control after a webinar hosted by the African Centre for Diseases Control; public strategy firm, Gatefield; and the Global Health Advocacy Incubator, to engage journalists on the issue of COVID-19 vaccines safety, effectiveness, and distribution.
The webinar had an expert panel of journalists including Hopewell Chin’ono, an award winning investigative journalist from Zimbabwe; Dr. Laz Ude Eze, AIT television host; Tanya Farber, senior science reporter, Sunday Times; Vuyo Mkize, health writer, City Press; and Elizabeth Merab, health and science journalist, Nation Media Group, who shared their experiences covering the vaccines.
Asides the challenge of acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccines, it has also become imperative to ensure that information sharing about the vaccines is genuine amidst a pool of information as disinformation.
According to Africa CDC, “the success of the vaccine roll out may be dampened by the
spread of disinformation which in turn can lead to mistrust of public institutions.”
Speaking at the webinar, Dr Emmanuel Agogo, the Nigeria Country Representative of Resolve to Save Lives highlighted some reasons for vaccine hesitancy and urged the media to take responsibility for enlightening audiences.
“Journalists can inform and increase public confidence in the vaccines. They should instead distribute reliable and accurate information,” Agogo said.
A report released by the Partnership for Evidence-Based Response to Covid-19 (PERC), after a survey of 19 member countries, revealed high levels of acceptability in several countries as follows; Morocco (91%), South Africa (61%), Zimbabwe (61%), Zambia (53%), Mozambique (75%), Egypt (78%), and the Democratic Republic of Congo (52%). With Tunisia and Cameroon recording the lowest percentages of acceptance (35%).
The consortium was made up of public health organizations such as the Africa Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention; Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies; the World Health Organization; the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team; the World Economic Forum and private sector firms such as market research company, Ipsos.
The center further explained that the new briefs (part of the third series of data collection and analysis from PERC) combine results from phone surveys on the impact of public health and social measures (PHSMs) with information on epidemiological trends, media monitoring, and data on population mobility.
