Anna-Lisa Paul
As the Government introduced further restrictions yesterday in the hopes of controlling the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) expressed concern that misinformation and rumours were fuelling vaccine hesitancy across the region.
Delivering the sobering claim during a virtual media briefing yesterday, PAHO Director Dr Carissa Etienne lamented, “Insidious rumours and conspiracy theories continue to spread, inspiring fear and costing lives.”
Labelling misinformation as one of the most serious threats to public health, she said PAHO was now collaborating with Facebook, Twitter and Google to ensure accurate and relevant news can be accessed by the public in a timely manner.
Etienne advised, “Before sharing something, we owe it to each other to check the source and confirm the information is true.”
Etienne said vaccines have been saving lives for hundreds of years from infections and diseases such as small pox, polio and measles. However, she declared misinformation was most damaging when it fuels vaccine hesitancy.
Etienne also pointed to alarming statistics recorded across the Americas in the last week.
“Our region reported more than 1.5 million new COVID-19 cases and nearly 40,000 COVID-related deaths.”
Saying the world had reached a tragic milestone over the last weekend, as more than three million persons had died from the virus, she said, “Nearly half of the deaths happened right here in the Americas.”
She lamented the lives that had been cut short, as she urged people to do better.
“This virus continues to be a threat in every corner and community across our region,” Etienne said.
She revealed just how the viral spread across North and South America had been trending and said cases continued to increase in Canada, especially among young people in their 20s and 30s, while in the US, after weeks of declining, it was again showing an uptick.
“Nearly every country in Central America is reporting a rise in infections. Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic continue to drive most infections in the Caribbean,” she stated.
“Cases are accelerating in Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia and Uruguay. Argentina has also seen a rapid growth of new infections and has assumed the third-highest case count in our region.”
However, it was not all bad news, as Etienne reported that after strengthening public health measures over the past few months, Chile has seen cases plateau and after a difficult few months, Brazil is reporting a drop in cases including in the Amazon region.
In spite of this, she said, cases remain alarmingly high across Brazil as municipalities were quick to relax restrictions, so PAHO was anticipating that “these trends will reverse.”
Vaccines are helping turn the tide of this pandemic and while any vaccine or medicine can present side effects at a certain level, Etienne assured that medical officials are always careful and thorough in assessing reactions, deaths and associated risks and benefits during clinical trials before administering them to the public.
Pointing out that vaccines were helping to drive down infection rates in some territories, Etienne said immunity would not be achieved overnight, as it would take time for our bodies to build up those immunities.
PAHO has so far helped to deliver more than 4.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 29 countries in the Americas and more are due to be delivered in the coming weeks, she added.
Next week is also World Immunisation Week and Etienne has assured that vaccines delivered through the COVAX facility have been thoroughly assessed by World Health Organisation (WHO) experts.