COVID INFO CAMPAIGN. Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, Department of Health (DOH)-Central Visayas chief pathologist, on Thursday (Nov. 26, 2020) proposes an information drive to explain the value of being vaccinated against the coronavirus disease. The awareness of the people is key to a successful fight against the unseen enemy. (File photo)
CEBU CITY – A Central Visayas health official on Thursday recommended a wider information drive to educate the people about the efficacy of vaccination against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, Department of Health (DOH)-Central Visayas chief pathologist and spokesperson for Covid- 19, said awareness of the people on the importance of immunization is a key to a successful fight against the unseen enemy.
Although the DOH in Central Visayas has not heard of “any reports of groups calling against the coronavirus vaccination program of the government," Loreche said increasing the awareness of the public is essential.
“There must be information drives. The people must be made aware of the usefulness of getting themselves immunized, including as part of the information is the need to understand that it is not 100 percent protection against SARS-COV 2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 or the strain of the virus causing Covid-19),” Loreche told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in a virtual interview.
Loreche said the people must also be made aware that those who will get the vaccine “might have mild side effects like fever and body pains or malaise”.
She said the program will also succeed if the government would allow a panel of experts to check on the vaccines.
She added that transparency in reporting especially on the choices of the vaccines to be used will give confidence to the people that it is safe to be immunized against Covid-19.
The government needs to “train more people who will be doing the actual vaccination itself” and the logistics must be planned and well-coordinated to include the timing of the giving of the vaccines to the people.
Loreche lauded the standing order of President Rodrigo Duterte to Secretary Galvez Carlito Jr., the chief implementer of the Philippines' Declared National Policy Against Covid-19, to ensure the procurement of safe and effective vaccines for the 60 percent of the country’s population, with those vulnerable and the front-liners as priorities.
The policy, she said, speaks of the “government’s thrust of protecting these group of our countrymen” against Covid-19.
“More so, when included in the planning are those who cannot afford to buy the vaccines,” she added. (PNA)
