Infect Chemother. 2022 Mar;54(1):180-181. English.
Published online Feb 24, 2022.
Copyright © 2022 by The Korean Society of Infectious Diseases, Korean Society for Antimicrobial Therapy, and The Korean Society for AIDS
reply

Reply: A More Contextualized Approach: Addressing COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in the Philippines

Emmanuel Lamptey
    • Institute of Life and Earth Sciences (Including Health and Agriculture), Pan African University, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Received February 05, 2022; Accepted February 13, 2022.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Dear Editor:

I want to share my ideas on “A more contextualized approach: addressing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the Philippines” as correspondence reply [1] to my article entitled “Should breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection affect our confidence in the COVID-19 vaccines?” [2].

The correspondence article in this journal posed the question of how do we lessen vaccine hesitancy and convince more people to get inoculated using a more contextual approach [2].

With social media as one of the rightly acknowledged channels, health education on breakthrough infection and why vaccination still matters must be expressed/spread on this platform to gain grounds and promote trust in the vaccines. Just like the anti-vaccines lobbyists and religious groups are doing, on the other hand [3, 4, 5]. My article primarily focus on People who are already vaccinated and have breakthroughs, and may communicate to the unvaccinated that the vaccine lack effectiveness [1]. Therefore, countering this misinformation and promoting confidence in vaccines are essential.

For the economic approach or giving monetary and food incentives to the needy ones, I believe vaccination is a personal choice in which everyone has the right to accept or decline irrespective of economic status. Inducing people with food or monetary gains does not go a long way to sustain vaccination campaigns. It only meets their physiological needs at a time. People must understand why prevention is wealth that is the economic value of vaccination [6]. The economic growth of people is best driven by improved health [7].

Vaccination is proven as a substantial preventive measure that improves health and make individuals to increase their own economic growth [8].

Both approaches (contextualized and health education on breakthroughs) can be an effective intervention to build confidence and solve the problem of vaccine hesitancy, but when the focus is on the vaccinated losing confidence in the coronavirus disease 2019 vaccines because breakthroughs, the latter is preferred.

Notes

Funding:None.

Conflict of Interest:No conflict of interest.

References

    1. Cordero DA Jr. A more contextualized approach: Addressing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the Philippines. Infect Chemother 2022;54:178–179.
    1. Lamptey E. Should Breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 Infection Affect Our Confidence in the COVID-19 Vaccines? Infect Chemother 2021;53:676–685.
    1. Kata A. Anti-vaccine activists, Web 2.0, and the postmodern paradigm--an overview of tactics and tropes used online by the anti-vaccination movement. Vaccine 2012;30:3778–3789.
    1. Betsch C, Brewer NT, Brocard P, Davies P, Gaissmaier W, Haase N, Leask J, Renkewitz F, Renner B, Reyna VF, Rossmann C, Sachse K, Schachinger A, Siegrist M, Stryk M. Opportunities and challenges of Web 2.0 for vaccination decisions. Vaccine 2012;30:3727–3733.
    1. Lamptey E. Post-vaccination COVID-19 deaths: a review of available evidence and recommendations for the global population. Clin Exp Vaccine Res 2021;10:264–275.
    1. Re’my V, Largeron N, Quilici S, Carroll S. The economic value of vaccination: Why prevention is wealth. J Mark Access Health Policy 2015;3:29284.
    1. Suhrcke M, McKee M, Stuckler D, Sauto Arce R, Tsolova S, Mortensen J. The contribution of health to the economy in the European Union. Public Health 2006;120:994–1001.
    1. Deogaonkar R, Hutubessy R, van der Putten I, Evers S, Jit M. Systematic review of studies evaluating the broader economic impact of vaccination in low and middle income countries. BMC Public Health 2012;12:878.

Metrics
Share
ORCID IDs
PERMALINK