Eight months after the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine in Venezuela, the vaccination centers are empty, a scenario that experts attribute to mistrust in the system, while the Government blames it on the fact that 80% of the population has already been immunized, compared to 34.3% who computes the World Health Organization (WHO).
The lack of clarity regarding vaccination with contradictory data among the officials themselves, the types of drugs administered, the centralization in the large cities of the country and the number of people vaccinated negatively affects the confidence of citizens.
Since September, the authorities have offered percentages, but have not clearly detailed whether it is a calculation that takes into account those who have a single dose or the two required.
The exception was made on October 11 by the Deputy Minister of Health, Marisela Bermúdez, who clarified that the country had reached 50% of citizens with only one, the same figure that the president was talking about then, Nicolas Maduro, who was referring to “immunized persons”, for which it would be necessary for them to have the complete schedule, since, otherwise, they would not have such immunization.
Faced with doubts, the infectious disease doctor and professor at the Institute of Tropical Medicine of the Central University of Venezuela Julio Castro explained to Efe that that of the Executive can be a figure that considers only the adult population and ignores the total of citizens.
In any case, the data are incomplete, while the population continues to demand more clarity.
DISINFORMATION AND UNKNOWLEDGE
“All over the world, and perhaps the pandemic has amply demonstrated it, if you don’t have a persistent, systematic campaign to inform people about the vaccine, then people are not going to get vaccinated. And that is the worst thing. It can happen to all of us, “said Castro.
In his view, that has been the problem in Venezuela, where vaccination began in mid-February with the application of the first 100,000 doses from Russia, but without precise information about the conferences and spaces set up for this purpose.
Now, when different batches of Sputnik, Sinovac -through the Covax mechanism-, from china Sinopharm, and even the Cuban Abdala, and the Government claims to have “enough” vaccines to immunize 100% of the population, it is the citizens who do not prioritize immunization.
This lack of information has led specialists to organize surveys to find out the real figures, such as the vaccine monitor of the National Hospital Survey directed by Castro.
This study, which follows the WHO measurement parameters, calculated that, by November 15, 36% of the population had received the full vaccination schedule, while 46.20% had at least the first dose.
These figures are closer to those of the WHO, which speaks of 9,898,706 people vaccinated with the full schedule, which is equivalent to 34.3% of the population. Venezuela sum, according to data from the Executive, 437,113 cases of COVID-19 and 5,229 people died from the virus.
EFE
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