Getting Filipinos to trust vaccines seen as next challenge in COVID-19 crisis

Health experts have said that the Filipinos’ trust and confidence in vaccines may be the next challenge as the world battles the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

“Over and above the issue of safety, we’re dealing with a bigger issue of trust and vaccine confidence,” said Department of Health technical advisory group member Dr. Anna Ong Lim in a webinar on Friday.

She said vaccine trust and vaccine confidence were “critical issues” that needed to be answered now.

READ: Dengvaxia controversy contributed to vaccine hesitancy among Filipinos

“Our vaccination system has really been battered by controversies we’ve undergone in the past,” added Lim, who is also a pediatrician and a professor at UP College of Medicine.

Lim said parents who had consulted with her used to have no problems vaccinating their children. However, the situation changed when the Dengvaxia controversy erupted three years ago.

In November 2017, Sanofi Pasteur announced that the Dengvaxia vaccine may lead to more severe dengue symptoms for those who had never been infected by the virus.

Because of this, the DOH stopped the school-based dengue immunization program. Since then, more than 100 parents had blamed the vaccine for the deaths of their children and many of them filed criminal complaints against the government. Until now, their cases are still pending.

“At that point in time, the landscape changed,” she said. “I would get queries like, ‘Doc, safe ba ’yan?’”

READ: A crisis of trust

One time, Lim said, a mother and her daughter came to her clinic and the child refused to get vaccinated because she was afraid she was going to die. As a private doctor, she was able to take the time to explain and reassure the family.

However, that’s not always the case for the rest of the Filipino population during the pandemic.

“We’re talking about 100 million Filipinos who might not have that opportunity, who are getting information from headlines and social media posts,” she said.

“Information is not just going to solve the problem. Trust-building needs to be done,” she added. “We need to identify these issues more precisely so we can have more focused solutions.”

Dr. Antonio Migel Dans, Healthcare Professors Alliance Against COVID-19 spokesperson, said trust could be built through vigilance.

“We can’t just protect it [vaccine trust and confidence] by talking about it,” said Dans, who is also a professor at UP College of Medicine. “We need to earn the trust so people would believe us and we’ll earn that trust through vigilance. We need to be vigilant with the science, vigilant with the process.”

According to a Pulse Asia survey report released this month, 47% of Filipinos said they would not get the COVID-19 vaccine, with safety concerns being the top reason.

Meanwhile, at least 56 million COVID-19 vaccine doses are expected to arrive in the Philippines under the COVAX facility by May, while the government has inked a 17-million supply deal with AstraZeneca funded by the private sector. – RC, GMA News