Misinformation is responsible for the COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in St Vincent and the Grenadines. This is the view of consultant and urologist Dr Rohan Deshong.
The World Health Organization’s Covid-19 chief Maria Van Kerkhove warned Tuesday, 5 October, that Covid-19 misinformation and disinformation circulating on the internet resulted in people dying. There is no way to sugar-coat that, she said.
Dr Deshong speaking on VC3 last Wednesday, said that too many times, people listen to persons who are not qualified to talk about an issue, and some people do not believe what the Ministry of Health is putting out to the public.
He said some are doubling down, saying that the Ministry is escalating figures to make people scared.
“If anything, my CMO and I tend not to escalate the figures; we have a fairly high threshold to call a death a COVID death to the point where I think we put the bar too high”.
Deshong said it is facetious for people to think that they are elevating the number so persons can get vaccinated. He said the flip side of misinformation about the vaccine is worst.
“I am disappointed at some people who are still refusing to be vaccinated. Unfortunately, people have to die from Covid-19 when vaccines are available,” Deshong said.
The doctor said Vincentians had enough time to do research.
“Unfortunately, citizens are dying in the presence of an effective vaccine. It makes me angry, so I tend not to talk about it”.
Deshong said all this goes to show the power of words and misinformation.
According to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP, the novel coronavirus has killed at least 4.8 million people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019.
At the time of this publication, SVG had reported a total of 33 COVID-19 deaths.