by Hasnain Raza 6 July 2021
Ever since India started ‘the world’s largest vaccination programme.’ Scarcities of vaccines, patent waiver, compulsory licencing, war of procurement of vaccine between the centre and the state and obviously the prices of the vaccines have been highly talked over. However, neglecting ‘Vaccine Hesitancy.’
According to the World Health Organisation, “vaccination hesitancy refers to the delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services.”
The findings from the Covid-19 Symptom Survey (CSS) on Facebook in India establish the same and are alarming. The trends suggest that India’s vaccine hesitation rate stands at approximately 28.6 percent across the states and UTs. Whereas it is up to 42% in Tamilnadu and up to 41% in Punjab according to the CSS. Rumours are there about vaccines containing pork products, having microchips, altering DNA, causing infertility which all are false. There are so much misinformation and fake news that some people in a village of Uttar Pradesh jumped into the river when the officials visited there to campaign and spread awareness about vaccine. Recently a team of health workers were beaten and assaulted by the local people in Madhya Pradesh just because they went there to motivate them to get vaccinated. It is high time the government should focus on strengthening the Covid-19 vaccine communications approach through direct community participation, trust-building initiatives and advertisements to expand the coverage of vaccines in order to create awareness and to enlighten the people about their necessities. Advertisements and communications have a crucial role to play, and many a time it has hitherto been utilised to lead people into healthy conduct, including a cessation of smoking, weight loss, reduction of harms from food diseases and many more.
Revisiting the ‘Polio Eradication Program’
Vaccine hesitancy is not really a new challenge in India. Back then in 2002, a thousand cases of polio were recorded throughout the country being UP and Bihar in focus sparked a serious panic among the country’s public health organisations. The issue at that time was not a lack or shortage of vaccines (although today is) but unwillingness of the rural mothers to walk vaccination booth set up by the Indian government and get their children vaccinated. In order to overcome this and to reach a wider audience, the government appointed Amitabh Bachchan as the brand ambassador for the ‘Polio Eradication Campaign’.
Amitabh Bachchan’s polio eradication advertisement had a personal appeal since he used both verbal and non-verbal communication which significantly improved the interaction between the advertiser and the targeted audience. The ad was created with the central theme “Do Boond Zindagi Ki” or “Two Drops for Life” in order to ease fear among a certain section of society over the security of polio drops. But the real charisma was the way he conveyed the message in the manner and enchantment of his characteristic i.e., ‘Angry young man’ did wonders.
In the vaccination booths where earlier hardly one or two mothers were coming, after this ad the reception of the polio vaccine booth trebled. Interestingly, when the mothers were asked about such a sudden change in their conduct, they replied “Amit ji has become angry, we came here to get our children vaccinated because we don’t want furthermore to make him angry.”
The polio vaccine case study is the classical example of how powerful approach an advertisement is to sensitize the masses. Therefore, sensitize the people with the importance of Covid-19 vaccines and the danger of denying their benefit appears to be a fundamental measure of action that is relevant to address the serious public health threat posed by scientifically unfounded statements and excuses, and the same should be evaluated and examined on an ongoing basis in the medical, psychological, social, political and ethical aspects to reduce the overall consequences.
The proper information on vaccines should be disseminated through local radio, TV stations in local languages by local authorities, cultural leaders, and local artists to engage the people as being done in the tribal districts of Chhattisgarh by using popular folk songs to highlight the benefit of the vaccination. Even in Nandurbar (a city in Maharashtra) which at a time was at the bottom of the vaccination rate list, with the tireless efforts put up by the local administration through communication changed the things drastically. And now the same district has vaccinated 100% population of its 45+ age group
It’s not been a time when there was no opposition to vaccines, there will always be people who take the vaccine and those who refuse regardless of the scientific proof. Thus, we need to persuade them through good communication and advertisement tactics that getting vaccinated is essential not only for ourselves, but for our family, friends and society as a whole.