By Lloyd Takawira
Human rights doctors under the banner Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) have deplored the low uptake of COVID-19 vaccines and urges government to come up with robust measures to strategy to curb disinformation which has seen many conspiracy theories over the vaccines making many people shun away from being vaccinated.
In a commemorative statement to mark World Health Day , Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) blamed the government for the lack of a robust awareness campaign so that people feel the need to be vaccinated.
ZADHR also said there was need for authorities to fight spiritedly disinformation through awareness campaigns .“ZADHR notes the poor uptake of vaccination across the country and urges the Ministry of Health and Child Care to do more on vaccine literacy through enhanced public campaigns to popularise the vaccine roll-out plan and on dispelling myths and misconceptions for the purposes of promoting demand for, and uptake of vaccines in the country,” the rights doctors said yesterday.
“We also urge the government of Zimbabwe to invest more in financing the procurement of more vaccines and expanding the geographic reach of the programme.”
ZADHR also said that , the COVID-19 pandemic period has , exposed the shambolic health sactor and called on the government to prioritize funding the health systems.
“ZADHR, on this day, joins all stakeholders in the health sector in taking stock of the gains, misses and opportunities in the fight against COVID-19 in Zimbabwe. ZADHR notes that the poor, indigent and marginalized communities have suffered the most due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The situation has further amplified gender, social and health inequalities and calls for governments across the world to ensure that citizens, especially the marginalized areas”.
Last week marked one year since Covid-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization.
As a number of vaccines have been discovered, governments worldwide continue to procure the vaccines, however the extent of misinformation and disinformation around them has dented the prospect the process global population vaccination.
According to the World Health Organization the world should unify to combat misinformation and beat COVID-19 “infodemic” — an overabundance of information and the rapid spread of misleading or fabricated news, images.
Speaking to the media on the need to fight against disinformation WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said :“We’re not just battling the virus, We’re also battling the trolls and conspiracy theorists that push misinformation and undermine the outbreak response.”
Proliferating and misinformation in Zimbabwe just like many African countries has had a lethal health ramifications in the context of a global pandemic fight as many people are shunning away from being vaccinated .
