Uttam Maharjan

Two years on, COVID-19 has not shown any signs of abatement. If anything, the respiratory contagion has affected the world beyond people’s wildest dreams with the emergence of one variant after the other. Now, over 350 million people have been infected with over 5.6 million deaths worldwide. The world is now mainly in the grip of Omicron and Delta variants. The Omicron variant can spread from person to person faster than any other variants. However, its effects are milder than those of Delta and other variants.

During the initial days of COVID-19, people showed a strong desire for vaccines. Medical scientists worked day and night to develop vaccines. Surprisingly, they were able to develop vaccines in a short span of time. It may be noted that it may take several years for a vaccine to be developed. The vaccination drive then started all over the world.
In the meantime, unwillingness to get vaccinated also developed in many people. This is what is known as vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy is unwillingness on the part of people to get vaccinated, or delay in getting vaccinated. Vaccine-hesitant people may accept some vaccines but refuse to take others. Vaccine hesitancy differs from anti-vaccination in that the latter denotes complete opposition to vaccination. Those who totally oppose vaccination are popularly known as anti-vaxxers.

Ignorance
There are several factors that lead to vaccine hesitancy. These factors include, inter alia, lack of scientifically based knowledge, understanding or evidence about vaccines and their working process; self-complacency about not having to be jabbed; lack of access to vaccines; existence of side effects of vaccines in some cases; psychological factors such as the fear of getting jabbed; and a negative attitude towards vaccines that vaccines have been developed by pharmaceutical companies with a view to making huge profits.

Science has proved that vaccination is an important component in the heath sector. Diseases like poliomyelitis and small pox have been eliminated because of vaccination. Lack of vaccination would result in outbreaks of diseases, outstretching health facilities and leading to more deaths. In fact, vaccination is key to eliminating COVID-19 by helping develop herd immunity in people.
Vaccine hesitance was already there before the outbreak of COVID-19. The global incidence of the disease has amplified vaccine hesitancy in a sense. Vaccine-hesitant people argue that it is their human rights not to get inoculated against the respiratory disease. They also argue that they cannot be forced to follow health safety protocols such as social distancing, wearing masks or using sanitiser. They are of the opinion that forcing them to adhere to the protocols would breach their human and civil rights.

The world has witnessed various epidemics and pandemics. COVID-19 is just another form of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) that broke out in China in 2003 and spread to four other countries. The Spanish flu, which broke out in 1918 and lasted for a little over two years, infected 500 million people and claimed the lives of as many as 50 million people. COVID-19 has not reached the scale of the Spanish flu.

There are vaccines, facemasks, sanitisers and even medicines and medical equipment but COVID-19 is yet to be eliminated. One of the reasons for failure to control the disease is the flouting of the health safety protocols. Even responsible people such as ministers and leaders tend to organise meetings, rallies or conventions. The political parties of Nepal organised general conventions in November and December 2021. Several leaders have also fallen victim to the disease. Another is the mass movement of people from one part of the country to another, or from one country to another. The world has shrunk to a global village. Whenever infections surge in India, the infection rate also surges in Nepal. With infections rising in India, Nepal has also witnessed rising numbers of infections.

In the present context, vaccination seems to be the pis aller against COVID-19. Nobody will be safe until everybody is safe. The government is also prioritising vaccination. Even youngsters twelve years of age and above are being inoculated now. Booster doses are also being administered to the target groups of people such as health workers, security personnel, sanitation staff, government employees, immunocompromised people and elderly people over sixty years of age.

Health threat
Vaccine hesitancy is a challenge to curbing COVID-19. The World Health Organisation declared vaccine hesitancy one of the top ten health threats in 2019. It is difficult to force vaccine-hesitant people to get inoculated. However, they can be convinced to take jabs. Some countries have made vaccine passports mandatory for travel. Although such a provision may be opposed by certain quarters, the main motive of the provision may be to encourage more and more people to get vaccinated. That tennis star Novak Djokovic was deported from Australia depriving him of playing in the Australian Open because of his unvaccinated status shows how serious the Australian government is about vaccination.

Nepal has also made it mandatory for people to show vaccination cards to enter public places or offices such as government offices, banks, cinema halls or restaurants. Such a provision will make a long way in encouraging people to get jabs. This may force even vaccine-hesitant people to reconsider their decision not to get vaccinated. They should, however, keep it in mind that vaccines are not only safe but also effective at preventing the transmission of COVID-19. As the disease is assuming dangerous proportions, it is imperative to break the chain of transmission. For this, vaccination can prove to be an effective tool. Besides, health safety protocols should be followed by all.

(Maharjan has been regularly writing on contemporary issues for this daily since 2000. uttam.maharjan1964@gmail.com)