Cumuto/Manzanilla MP fights vaccine hesitancy

Cumuto/Manzanilla MP Dr Rai Ragbir, a medical practitioner, is focused on ensuring his constituents feel comfortable getting vaccinated.

So, three weeks ago, he began co-ordinating an at-home vaccination drive in his constituency in collaboration with the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA).

In doing so, Ragbir wanted to ensure constituents were able to get vaccinated in their homes.

To date, over 300 people have been vaccinated in the at-home vaccination drive.

But Ragbir believes it is one thing to make vaccines more accessible and another thing to get people vaccinated if they are hesitant.

So he’s diversified his vaccination push to ensure that apart from accessibility, constituents feel mentally at ease taking the vaccine.

With this in mind, Ragbir has been on the ground talking to constituents in an effort to calm their vaccine hesitancy.

As well as visiting different vaccinations site in his constituency and talking to constituents, he’s also volunteered at some.

He sees the fight as no longer about getting people vaccinated but fighting vaccine hesitancy.

Ragbir told Newsday, “People still have a lot of doubts and questions in their minds (about the vaccine).

“As a practitioner, I see myself as an ambassador to go out there and ease people’s mental fright.”

When Ragbir speaks to vaccine-hesitant constituents, he lets them speak their mind and voice all their concerns about taking a covid19 vaccine.

He said everyone – even the covid19 vaccine-hesitant – is entitled to their opinions.

“This is a modern world where we have access to social media and the internet. People are reading and they have questions.

“(People) need to ask questions, but we (health practitioners) need to give appropriate answers as well.

“It’s okay to be vaccine-hesitant because you have questions, but we as healthcare workers need to answer those questions.”

By taking this approach, Ragbir said he has been able to achieve breakthroughs with some people who were vaccine-hesitant.

Apart from trying his best to communicate the safety of vaccines, Ragbir also reminds people that vaccinations are nothing new.

With children 12-18 now being vaccinated with the Pfizer shots, he reminds parents: “It still exists that there are entry requirements to get into primary schools, you had to get vaccinations.

“Even at tertiary level…to go from CXC or CAPE (to university), you need your updated vaccination card.”

He believes it’s critical that as many people as possible arevaccinated especially with there being confirmed cases of the delta variant in TT.

He urges people to think about the healthcare workers who have been serving on the frontline since last year.

Even though Ragbir stresses the importance of vaccinations to manage the spread and severity of covid19, he reminds people not to let their guard down.

“The problem is that sometimes the people who have been vaccinated have forgotten to continue practising their public health guidelines, which include washing their hands and wearing their masks.

“Remember the public health guidelines: that is so very important.”

With Sinopharm and Pfizer jabs already being given throughout his constituency, Ragbir said the Johnson & Johnson covid19 vaccine will also be available to his constituents from next week.

On August 21, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh announced that the 108,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccines that arrived in Trinidad and Tobago on August 20 would go out to remote coastal and inland villages like those in Ragbir’s constituency.

“People in TT are very blessed and very lucky to have different choices of covid19 vaccines so far,” Ragbir told Newsday.

He is asking constituents interested in being vaccinated to contact the ERHA or the constituency’s social media accounts.

Ragbir thanked all medical practitioners and volunteers at the covid19 vaccination sites across TT.