Survey Shows Most QC Residents Are Undecided About Covid-19 Vaccine – Belmonte

Joy Belmonte, Mayor of Quezon City. FILE PHOTO OF INVESTIGATOR / NINO JESUS ​​ORBETA

The majority of Quezon City residents surveyed are still undecided about vaccinating against COVID 19 due to safety and efficacy concerns, according to Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte.

Belmonte said the city has an information campaign to inform residents about the basics of vaccination, and then it would launch a campaign to explain the characteristics of the vaccines approved by the national government.

Belmonte said the city conducted the survey asking applicants for their Quezon City Unified ID card regarding their willingness to receive a COVID 19 vaccine.

“The most important thing for us now is to determine if they want to be vaccinated or not. And in Quezon City, many are willing and only a few are not. But most are undecided and undecided about issues like safety and efficacy, “Belmonte said at the Laging Handa conference.

The survey only asked residents if they were willing to get the vaccine, but did not ask them what their preferred brand was, as she believes that people still don’t know about the different characteristics of these brands as of now.

“I don’t think people at this stage, when the information is inadequate, are in a position to say ‘this is my brand of choice,'” he said.

She said Quezon City would encourage residents to get vaccinated and to trust those chosen by the Food and Drug Administration.

“It is our duty to convince our citizens that they must be vaccinated so that we can achieve herd immunity. And that we can assure them that the vaccines that we will offer them have been subjected to strict protocols and are in fact the best vaccines that we can offer them, ”he said.

It has already launched a series of webinars explaining what a vaccine is, why it is necessary and what its effects are, he said.

Later, he would focus on explaining the characteristics of each vaccine that would be approved by the FDA and offered by the national government, he said.

“At least given the limited options, they can make some form of choice,” he added.

The messages would be different for each sector, such as the young and the elderly, he also said.

“We will tailor the message to address the concerns of our people,” he said.

Until now, the FDA has authorized the emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine.

The government plans to purchase vaccines from different manufacturers, including Pfizer.

Their preference for China’s Sinovac vaccine, which has a lower reported efficacy rate compared to others, has been questioned.

Quezon City has signed a deal for 1.1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which would be good for 550,000 people.

The city is also in talks with other drug companies that have obtained emergency use authorization for their vaccines from strict regulatory authorities in other countries, Belmonte said.

But since Quezon City’s P1 billion vaccine budget is not enough to target the majority of its 2.9 million residents, it would also rely on national government support and rely on the vaccine it would provide, he said.

“And in that sense, we trust the judgment of the national government, what vaccines it would allocate for the remaining residents of Quezon City that would not be covered by our budget of P1 billion,” he said.

Meanwhile, after obtaining doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the city of Baguio is considering purchasing more vaccines from Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute and US companies Pfizer and Moderna, according to Mayor Benjamin Magalong.

Magalong said the additional vaccines Baguio would order would be for contingencies and to share with neighboring municipalities that were unable to reach vaccine purchase agreements.

Baguio has a deal for 380,000 doses of the UK’s AstraZeneca vaccine, which would cover 190,000 people or about 70 percent of the city’s population, Magalong said.

“We are also negotiating with Gamaleya to obtain a certain quantity of doses and another company from the United States, either Pfizer or Moderna. We are asking the national government for help to be able to negotiate with them, “he said at the Laging Handa conference.

He said Baguio wants to buy more vaccines so that he can share them with nearby towns.

“They are our neighbors, we have to help them,” he added.

He also said that Baguio is preparing communication materials to inform its residents about the importance of the vaccine and what to expect once they have received the injections.

People would be informed about possible side effects of the vaccines, such as numbness and fever, which are normal reactions for most, he said.

CFC

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