Communication must continue

ON FRIDAY, at the National Care Fair at SAPA, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh called on his audience to ignore anti-vaxxers on social media.

"Do not listen to graduates of the University of Facebook," he warned.

His annoyance with widespread social media disinformation was mirrored by an equally testy Brian Manning, San Fernando East MP, who urged the public: "Listen to our healthcare professionals and not the quacks on social media."

It's the right message, but it's coming from the wrong people.

If reaching the public and persuading them to be vaccinated were to be compared to picking mangoes, all the ripe fruit on the ground and within easy reach is already gone. Everyone who was ready for vaccination or didn't need persuasion to do so has already got their jab.

Now it's time to climb the metaphorical tree, brave the marabunta nest and reach the rest.

Healthcare professionals working in the parallel healthcare system are exhausted, but what they really need is more inventiveness and innovation in getting a more compelling message across to the unvaccinated.

For some, it may already be too late.

The intensive care units at all healthcare facilities are effectively filled, and doctors may have to face the most unpalatable of choices: deciding who gets a bed and a support system and who doesn't.

The tone of the government's response to this dire situation seems inspired by a "who can't hear will feel" dismissal of this personal choice; but someone who isn't vaccinated and becomes mortally infected with covid19 won't face punishment. They will face a battle for life.

Petulant declarations that the government has done all that it can do to educate the population don't advance by an inch the mission of getting more citizens vaccinated.

Haranguing from a virtual podium consistently been the main communications strategy of the government and nobody's listening any more.

What's needed is analysis of the problem to understand who is avoiding vaccination and why.

That won't come in response to belittling and admonishing people who have refused vaccination.

It must be realistically engaged by entering the social circles that perpetuate the misinformation that encourages negative responses to vaccination, or in some cases – still – giving people basic information about the virus and the vaccines.

A 2014 WHO study across a range of peer-reviewed literature on vaccine communication evaluated the strategies used.

What delivered moderate success were peer-level interventions of informed conversation within communities that were sensitive to religious and cultural expectations.

This was the best option among strategies that registered almost uniformly low to poor results.

It's an environment of consistent, Sisyphean pushing of persuasive messages uphill, driven by the support and presence of respected opinion leaders within communities, rather than formally appointed leaders often using technical jargon.

It's time to start that work seriously, and to let public health medical professionals do theirs.