Vaccine administration, vaccine inoculation or vaccine immunisation has become some of the buzz words lately. Every country is talking about the vaccines efficacy and its administration to the public, of course, India is not any different. There are a few vaccines that are claiming as good as 95% efficacy. Although the concern is not only about the efficacy it’s also about the will of the public towards its administration at large.
Recently, many reports of various side effects of these vaccines have caused fear in the mind of the people and that has consequently made them more hesitant towards its administration. For instance, countries like Finland and Mexico reported adverse effects to Pfizer vaccine, Argentina has also confirmed reactions to Sputnic V. Such news has further raised apprehensions in the mind of the public. As per the survey conducted by GOQii COVID-19 – The Way Forward, albeit the government is readying up for the immunisation drive, more than 50% of people are still clueless about practising the vaccine that has forced the government to come up with the strategy to counter the problem.
Strategies to counter the vaccine hesitation
The Union Ministry of Health has thought of a detailed communication methodology to tackle issues emerging out of vaccine hesitancy, and ‘eagerness’ among individuals. The strategy has been worked out to supervise national, state and district level of communication channels. It seeks to disseminate timely, accurate and transparent information about the vaccines to alleviate any apprehension that exists. Moreover, it also seeks to build trust and enable greater confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine amongst all people by practising transparency in communication, while also managing any mis/disinformation and rumours around it.
The entire strategy will be implemented in three different platforms-:
• By making use of the influencers or celebrities i.e., the government may rope in Bollywood or sports celebrities to assure people that vaccine will not have any side effects if it is administered to the people.
• Community groups can also be used for mitigating peoples’ apprehensions. The frontline workers who directly engage with community consultations and religious-based or faith leaders could be taken into confidence and they would also be asked to take their disciples or followers into confidence as well.
• All forms of media from normal newspapers to the television outlets from the social media and the wall posters everything will be used by the government in order ensure that this is implemented through National Media Rapid Response Cell. This Rapid Response Cell will coordinate all the activities that are being conducted on the social cell.
The communication strategy is absolutely necessary at this point to aware the people about the programme as there is still a lot of vaccine hesitancy. This hesitancy for vaccination is not a good sign as it can cost India so much that it would be difficult to recover. Any communication gap can render the vaccine administration plan futile. Therefore, the government have to be very vigilant while drafting any strategy and during its implementation as well to achieve the desired results.
(Writer is a Research Scholar at Mahatma Gandhi Central University and Member at FETC, BHU)