Fake news a cause of vaccine hesitancy in Lanao del Sur —governor

The Lanao del Sur government is now ramping up its efforts to boost the vaccination rate in the province after having only 8.7% of its target population inoculated against the COVID-19 due to vaccine hesitancy.

“Actually, masakit mang aminin pero nasa 8.7% or 60,500 lamang ang nabakunahan. Sa ngayon, nasa field na ‘yung mga health workers natin para sa national vaccination at sana ‘yung mga tao ay magpabakuna na rin,” Lanao del Sur Governor Mamintal Adiong Jr. said in a Laging Handa interview.

(It pains me to say this but only 8.7% or 60,500 individuals have been vaccinated here so far. Right now, our health workers are in the field for the national vaccination drive and we hope that the people will already get their jabs.)

Adiong said that the provincial government’s target population is 300,000. It is aiming to get at least 100,000 people vaccinated on Monday, which is the start of the three-day national vaccination drive dubbed “Bayanihan, Bakunahan.”

He said one of the possible reasons the locals were afraid to get vaccinated was misinformation.

“Sa ngayon kasi ‘yung mga tao ay nakikinig at naririnig nila ‘yung mga fake news kaya ayaw talaga nilang magpabakuna. Lalong lalo na’t ang dami nilang sinasabi kasi mamamatay daw o anumang mangyayari after two years kaya nahihirapan kaming mag-convince sa mga tao,” he explained.

(Right now, the people don’t really want to get vaccinated because they listen and believe fake news saying they might die two years after the inoculation. We're having a hard time convincing them because of this.)

To combat this problem, Adiong said that prior to the national vaccination day, they printed and posted informative tarpaulins within the province to tell people that vaccines are safe. Other municipalities also committed to provide 5 to 10 kilos of rice to encourage more people to get vaccinated.

“Ngayon nasa 101,000 ang available na bakuna natin at patuloy pa ring dumadating ‘yung mga vaccines natin na manggagaling sa national, Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF). Pati ‘yung mga syringe, meron nang available. Wala ho tayong problema sa supplies, ‘yung mga kababayan na lang natin ang kailangan kumbinsihin para magpabakuna,” he added.

(Right now, we have 101,000 vaccine doses available and more are coming from the IATF. We also have enough syringe supplies. We really have no problem with the supplies, were just really need to encourage our constituents to get vaccinated.)

The government aims to inoculate at least 9 million individuals against COVID-19 from November 29 to December 1. Another vaccination drive will be conducted on December 15 to 17 as part of the government’s goal to vaccinate 70% of the entire population by year end.—AOL, GMA News