The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) on Wednesday launched a survey to gauge the views of the region’s citizens on the COVID-19 vaccination campaigns and their willingness to be vaccinated.
“There is a growing concern about vaccine hesitancy. The World Health Organization (WHO) identified vaccine hesitancy as one of the ten global health threats the world faces in 2019 and beyond, in its five-year strategic plan. In the Caribbean, recent studies conducted to determine acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccines reported that vaccine hesitancy ranged from 62% to 32% among adult populations of several Caribbean countries. In order for vaccination programmes to be successful, there must be wide uptake, acceptance, and trust of COVID-19 vaccines,” Dr Joy St John, CARPHA Executive Director, was quoted as saying in a release issued by the agency yesterday.
The release explained that the CARPHA COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance Survey, which has received ethical approval, aims to assess the beliefs and opinions of Caribbean residents, about COVID-19 vaccines and the potential barriers to acceptance of these vaccines. This information will help to inform regional public education vaccine campaigns to address concerns, build trust and understanding, and engage and empower the public.
CARPHA is working with several public health partner agencies including the Ministries of Health and the Regional Health Communication Network (RHCN) to launch the survey in-country.
A recent survey conducted in Guyana found “moderate support” among the general population for COVID-19 vaccination amidst concerns over potential side-effects. “The survey does not provide evidence of widespread support for the COVID-19 vaccine. According to the data, 60.2% of the general sample either agreed or strongly agreed that it was important for everyone to get the COVID-19 vaccine once available,” the report of the COVID-19 Vaccina-tion Hesitancy Survey says before adding that this can be interpreted as moderate support among the general population and special categories for COVID-19 vaccines.
In an effort to determine the national response to COVID-19, the Ministry of Health in partnership with UNICEF conducted the nation-wide survey to understand the Guyanese population’s perspective on a COVID-19 vaccine and to determine what percentage of the population would be hesitant to accept the vaccine when it becomes available.
The survey notes that 68.0% of respondents from the general sample said that they would take the COVID-19 vaccine if it is introduced in the country.
The government began its vaccination drive just over a week ago with frontline healthcare workers being inoculated with their first doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines that were donated by the Government of Barbados to Guyana.
Interested persons can complete the CARPHA survey at the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CARPHA_COVID-19_Vaccine_ Acceptance_Survey.
The survey is also accessible via all of CARPHA’s social media.
