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Image source,fake images
So far, the global number of new corona vaccines is estimated to be 160 million, but most of them are found in the United States and Europe. In the Asian region, vaccination programs are progressing steadily in India and elsewhere. India says about 14 million doses of vaccine have been injected since January.
However, in other countries and regions, the vaccination program has not yet started or is still at a very early stage. There are many reasons for this, including high levels of caution and high levels of suspicion about vaccines.
We have studied some countries and regions in this situation and the different reasons behind them.
Fear and misinformation
In the Philippines, many people still remember the fear of the Denvasha vaccine. The Denvaxia vaccine was launched in 2016 to prevent and control dengue.
But some children who received treatment died. Two years later, the vaccine was suddenly stopped due to concerns about side effects.
The Philippine Minister of Health was indicted, sparking much controversy. Health officials said this incident has raised a high level of suspicion about the vaccine and may hamper the country’s current COVID-19 vaccine promotion plan.
A recent survey showed that only 19% of Filipinos, or a fifth of adults, are willing to get vaccinated. Also, a large number of vaccines have not yet reached the country.
On February 28, a batch of Chinese Kexing vaccines arrived in the Philippines, the first batch of vaccines to arrive in the Philippines. The country approved emergency use a few days before your arrival.
Image source,fake images
First batch of Koxing vaccine arrives in the Philippines
According to a BBC correspondent in Manila (Virma Simonette), vaccination was supposed to start on February 15, but the Pfizer / BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines did not arrive on time.
The Philippines has also approved the emergency use of vaccines from these two companies. The AstraZeneca vaccine finally arrived in the Philippines on March 4.
In Pakistan, fear is also a factor, but this is largely due to misinformation and some particularly effective and pervasive videos.
In a widely circulated video in 2020, a private school teacher screamed frantically and pointed at a group of children who appeared to faint. He condemned the polio vaccine, called the children “unconscious” and rebuked officials for “forcing” them to get vaccinated. As a result, someone burned down a clinic.
This video and other similar videos have caused a drop in polio vaccination rates in the country. Although these videos have been discredited and removed from social media, millions of people still watched them.
As expected, this also affected the crown’s new vaccination plan. One report quoted a doctor from Peshawar, northern Pakistan, as saying that on the first day of vaccination around 400 medical staff were supposed to be vaccinated, but only a dozen people turned up.
Proceed with caution
In other Asian countries, vaccine projects have only just started. Officials and experts said this was out of caution, not hesitation. Many of these countries have been able to control the epidemic to a great extent and feel they have a lot of time.
The Associated Press quoted Catherine Bennett, an epidemiologist at Deakin University in Australia, as saying that after waiting, these countries can get data on occasional overdoses, understand the impact of vaccines on pregnant women, and prevent their own citizens.
South Korean Prime Minister Ding Shiyi reiterated this when he launched a vaccination defense later, and South Korea began vaccination on February 25. He said this was deliberate, to see how the vaccine works elsewhere.
“You know that Koreans are very fast,” he told BBC reporter Laura Bicker in Seoul.
Image source,EPA
South Korea began vaccination on February 25.
Officials from other countries in the region, Singapore, Cambodia and Vietnam also made similar comments about the importance of “waiting.”
Despite the delay in vaccination, many people are still anxiously waiting to begin vaccination. For example, South Korea’s goal is to achieve herd immunity by the fall.
Thailand will start vaccination in March, but said it hopes to vaccinate half the population by the middle of this year. Singapore has vaccinated approximately 250,000 people, but has obtained enough vaccines for the entire population.
Hesitation about vaccinations
In Japan, the success of vaccination is considered the key for the country to be able to successfully host the Olympics as planned. Vaccination delays have always been a problem, and Japan is one of the countries with the lowest confidence in vaccines in the world.
In the early 1990s, vaccination against measles, mumps, and rubella was suspected of causing a high incidence of aseptic meningitis. Although there is no clear link, these vaccines have been discontinued.
Riko Muranaka, a researcher at the Kyoto University School of Medicine, feels she lacks a general strategy for explaining the importance of vaccines to the public, but the sensational news of past vaccine accidents has a similar effect to the recent one. “anti-vaccine campaign”. released on the internet.
Winning the public’s trust in vaccination is so important that Japan actually delayed approval of vaccines like Pfizer.
After the company reported the results of the phase III trial, the United States and the United Kingdom immediately approved the use of the drug in early December. However, Japan insisted on further testing and did not start vaccination until February 17.
Muraka told the BBC that Japan has not been affected by the epidemic like many other countries. This also means that people don’t really realize the “meaning” of vaccination, but believe that people’s opinion has improved.
“But now, after seeing so many people get vaccinated with few side effects, they are more willing to get vaccinated.”
She believes that as more and more countries begin to vaccinate on a large scale, perceptions may have rapidly changed significantly in the last three weeks of February.
Image source,fake images
In Hong Kong, the government has started providing citizens with free vaccines against China Science and Technology (BioNTech). The Hong Kong government announced on Sunday (March 7) that a total of 93,000 people have received the first dose of the vaccine, of which 1,200 have been vaccinated with the Fubitai vaccine and the rest are Coxing vaccines. However, deaths after vaccination have caused tension in Hong Kong.
In Hong Kong, there have been two deaths after vaccination with the Kexing vaccine recently, raising public doubts and concerns. The first deceased was a 63-year-old man with diabetes and high blood pressure. The clinical event evaluation committee of the new corona vaccine initially believed that the event had nothing to do with vaccination. The other deceased was a 55-year-old woman who suffered a stroke and died in hospital 3 days after vaccination. Kong Fanyi was summoned by the expert committee on evaluation of clinical events for the new corona vaccine to believe that the cause of death was a stroke, but the committee must discuss it.
In addition, there have been 7 cases of hospitalization for malaise after being vaccinated with the Kexing vaccine in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong media reported that after the death of the Kexing vaccine, the number of people vaccinated decreased. According to Ming Pao, the number of vaccinations in a single day by Kexing fell to 8,100 on Sunday after exceeding 10,000 for 5 consecutive days, a decrease of 26.4% on a daily basis; while the number of vaccines for BioNTech increased by approximately double.
