Guyana trusts surefooted PR to reverse vaccine hesitancy

GUYANA WILL USE ITS SHARE OF THE US$2.5M THE JOE BIDEN
ADMINISTRATION PROVIDED THE CARIBBEAN, TO BOOST ITS GOODWILL
among skeptical residents in the fight against vaccine hesitancy in the Republic.
This country, neighbouring Suriname, The Bahamas, and Trinidad & Tobago will share the
US$2.5M latest support from the United States to support their individual vaccination
campaigns. In the case of Guyana, Georgetown will use the funding to advance its
communication strategy to help overcome stubborn vaccine hesitancy among its 700,000-odd
multi-racial population.
“These funds would assist the countries in the region to improve their communication with the
general population, encouraging them to get vaccinated and understand its benefits. It also comes
at a critical time when vaccines are now being approved for children,” Health Minister, Dr Frank
Anthony said.
He said the latest financial backing through the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) adds to the almost US$63M Washington has already injected into the
Caribbean to help fight the pandemic.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of the Pfizer vaccine for
children 5-11 years old, noting that once the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) greenlights it for emergency use, the health ministry will acquire it to inoculate children
as a defense against the highly contagious and deadly COVID-19 disease.
Improving the communication strategy to reduce vaccine hesitancy, will ensure more persons
safeguard their children’s health, by agreeing for them to be vaccinated against COVID-19,
Dr.Anthony reasoned.
Georgetown and Johns Hopkins University are collaborating to better understand the strategies
needed to ensure the South American Republic reaches herd immunity.

“The funding we received from USAID would go to helping us respond to some of these things
because, on a daily basis, people are on social media, and they receive all kinds of
misinformation. And they tend to believe these things. So, we have to now come up with a
programme to counter that,” he said.
Skepticism among sections of society is a hindrance reaching at least 90 percent inoculation
required to reach herd immunity. Early this week, MoH statistics show some 379, 400 persons,
18 years and older receiving their first dose of a Covid vaccine, representing 74 per cent of that
population.
Of that figure, another some 240, 000 are fully immunised, representing 46.8 percent.
Among children, approximately 27, 000 (or 31.7 per cent of the adolescent population) between
12-17 years have already taken the Covid jab, while 17,647 or (24.2 per cent) received the
second shot.
Anthony reiterated his appeal for everyone eligible in the population to take the vaccine to help
curb the spread and deaths of persons from the highly-contagious disease first detected in
Wuhan, China, towards the end of 2019.
“If people feel that if you get infected, it’s no big deal, it is a big deal because the
consequences that infection can have on your body can be very detrimental or one that can
cause you much problems later on in life,” health minister, Dr Anthony, warned.