Dear Editor,
Recently the Honourable Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, stated in Parliament that the Health Ministry “provides about 19 various children’s vaccines routinely.” (https://newsroom.gy/2022/02/10/to-boost-vaccination-rollout-60m-approved-for-transport-203m-for-contracted-staff/). A Guyana Chronicle editorial on September 5, 2021 stated: “Among the mandatory childhood vaccines are those that protect from measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, polio, rabies, hepatitis, rotavirus, tuberculosis among several others.” (https://guyanachronicle.com/2021/09/05/parental-responsibility/). And, two days ago (February 8) on the ‘daily’ Covid-19 Update, he stated that “Now again the big challenge here is a lot of children have not been getting their vaccines because they haven’t received explicit permission from their parents,” (https://www.stabroeknews.com/2022/02/09/news/guyana/more-adolescents-need-to-be-inoculated-anthony/). And, later the article states: “…Anthony appealed to parents to give their consent and have their children protected against the novel coronavirus.”
In the above referenced Covid-19 Update the Honourable Minister also states “Older persons are coming forward to take the vaccines and boosters” and “[we are] not seeing the same uptake with persons 12-17.” He further states “We generally have seen over the last several days that for the 12-17 it’s about 100, just a little bit more than a hundred [per day].” Indeed, as the graphs below show in February the daily average is 100 (42 first dose average and 58 second dose average). And, the graphs also show that COVID-19 vaccine uptake amongst adolescents has been low.
Guyana has one of the most enviable records in childhood immunisations in the Caribbean (https://www.who.int/immunization/monitoring_surveillance/data/guy.pdf?ua=1). A Guyana Chronicle article on April 25, 2021 states: “He [Dr. Anthony] specified that the vaccination coverage for children in Guyana stand at approximately 90 per cent. In some instances, immunisation levels have even touched on 100 per cent coverage, making this an exceptional fete for Guyana.” And, the Honourable Minister is also quoted as saying on April 25, 2021: “Over the last year, despite COVID, we have been able to continue that immunisation programme.” (https://guyanachronicle.com/2021/04/25/guyana-maintains-efficient-child-immunisation-amid-global-decline/)
Covid-19 vaccines for 12-17 year olds began in August 2021, approximately four months after the Honourable Minister’s comments in April. Now, given the vaccine hesitancy as shown in the above graphs is it still the case that parents are allowing their children to be vaccinated as usual with the other vaccines? In other words, are vaccination numbers for other childhood diseases still high or has the COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy had a carry-over effect and caused the numbers to decline?
If it is the case that there is no carry-over effect (no alarms have yet been raised by the Ministry)– that is, that children are being vaccinated per usual with other childhood vaccines then it would seem to suggest that the issue of vaccine hesitancy is not necessarily anti-science related, nor a concern about what is injected into the body, or simply a case of political mischief making but something substantially more. The error (if this is the case) then would be to assume those who are vaccine hesitant/deliberate are a monolith. Perhaps amongst the innovative stratagems the Honourable Minister might consider to increase the necessary (one cannot put out half a fire– and this becomes even more dire when the more transmissible BA.2 makes its expected arrival in Guyana shortly) COVID-19 vaccine uptake for this particular age cohort might be to stop speaking of and touting ad nauseam the science of the COVID-19 vaccine (which by any reasonable measure is simply an astounding accomplishment for human kind) and move towards a more nuanced approach like employing human behavioral scientists and perhaps, psychologists, with the intended goal that these mindful professionals can massage the message, and even the medium, in a way that resonates with this particular group (parent and child) and thus reduce hesitancy.
Yours faithfully,
Ellis Dee