Two weeks after the first dose against the coronavirus was applied to health personnel in Guatemala City, 238 kilometers away, a group of community leaders signed an act in which they showed their rejection of the vaccine.
On March 17, in Santa Lucía La Reforma, Totonicapán, that document stated that they would not support the population receiving the doses.
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The misinformation surrounding immunization influences attitudes like this and occurs in different territories, making it difficult to advance vaccination in the country, where only 23% of Guatemalans have the complete scheme.
The myths surrounding the covid-19 vaccine are various and a technical assistance mission of the United States Agency for Development (USAID), in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, identified a list that is common in towns that they do not accept the injection. There are 17 rumors identified.
That the vaccine contains poison, that it is made with human fetuses, that it is not safe, that it changes the gender, that it causes sterility and even that it leads to death, are some of the beliefs that were detected after holding meetings with health personnel, with community entities in Ixcán, in Quiché, as well as in Alta Verapaz, Chiquimula, Totonicapán and Sololá, in addition to conversations with local journalists, religious leaders, leaders of cocodes and oenegés who work in those areas. In this approach, their perception about vaccination was known and their doubts were clarified.
Social networks such as Facebook or messaging applications such as WhatsApp, are channels through which these myths manage to spread quickly, they also do so from the pulpits of some churches.
The institutional communication plan fails to counteract this misinformation. The Government’s investment in outreach campaigns on the issue of vaccination against covid-19 is around Q3.5 million, which is insufficient, and the dissemination of messages in Mayan languages is nil, as it transpired this week in the Congress of the Republic. For his part, the Minister of Health, Francisco Coma, acknowledged that it has not been possible to find a mechanism to get the message to the communities with cultural relevance, so the strategy would be rethought while taking advantage of the role of local leaders and churches to get closer to the population.
According to the doctor Mario Melgar, from the National Commission for Immunization Practices (Conapi), it is important that the population have the correct information about the vaccine and thus eliminate the myths that surround it, this will allow them to have a more conscious response towards immunization.
“I’m sure that with the right information everyone will want to get vaccinated,” says Dr. Mario Melgar, from Conapi.
Charging
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Vaccine reluctant
A member of the promotion team of the Santa Lucía la Reforma health center, who asked to omit his name, pointed out that since the registration of the first contagion of covid-19 in the municipality, the residents have denied the existence of the disease. Upon learning that the doses against the coronavirus were yet to arrive, community leaders organized to reject them, to the point that they signed an act in which they state that they will not support the immunization campaign.
The health personnel have held meetings with the community authorities to change their minds, but, according to the promoter, “they are locked in that the disease does not exist”, and the message they give to the population is: “Yes you inject yourself, I am not responsible ”. Those words sow doubt in people about the benefits of the vaccine, distrust that increases with the myths that are heard.
In Santa Lucía La Reforma, the goal is to inoculate 16,237 people, according to official data from the Ministry of Health. Until October 14, only 3.7% of the population had the complete scheme, a number that places the municipality in the third place of the least vaccinated.
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With loudspeakers, the advocacy team takes to the streets to motivate people to get vaccinated. The radio broadcasts messages in K’iche ‘, a local initiative. There are posters with messages to inform about the sessions, but they go unnoticed since about 34% of the population cannot read – by 2013 the municipality had the highest illiteracy rate in Totonicapán, according to the INE.
“Very few have been vaccinated; people are very reluctant. We are doing promotion, tweeting, but they don’t want to. For us, as health personnel, the pressure is great ”, says the interviewee.
This pressure happens because each promoter has a daily goal of people who must be convinced to receive the anticovid injection. “They tell us: how many did you get today? How many did you convince?”
The slogan is to capture 26, but it is a high number. “Today I went out in the morning to promote, and on the list it only took three,” he adds with frustration, as he assures that they have enough doses of AstraZeneca, Moderna, Sputnik V and Pfizer for adolescents between 12 and 17 years old. The downside is that community members do not want to be vaccinated, and the myths that circulate among the population are deeply rooted.
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Ant work
“There are several myths, the most common is that the vaccine kills. They say that several people died because they were vaccinated, but in meetings that we have had we explained that of the 28 thousand doses that we have applied, no one has died from the vaccine, but that they do die from covid-19, ”says Juan Manuel García, who collaborates in promoting immunization in the health area of Ixcán.
Those messages that deny the efficacy of the vaccine reach the area through social networks, the radio, but also through foreign television programs, to which they have access through the cable signal.
García indicates that there are 18 communities located in the Tzetún Health District where the entire population refuses to receive anticovid doses.
As promotional units, they go from community to community so that the population has accurate information about the covid-19 vaccine.
At first they called community assemblies to break these myths, however, they did not achieve the expected results. In this ant job, they now meet with community leaders to explain the benefits of immunization, and that they become replicators of the message. The strategy works.
“If a leader is committed and convinced about the vaccine, he will also promote it in the rest of the community. The strategy is working, not at the rate we would like, but more people are looking for us to get vaccinated, ”says García.
It may interest you: Coronavirus: Why Guatemala is worse in deaths than in infections
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