ILOILO City — In a statement issued on July 26, the Department of Health (DOH) in Western Visayas listed the activities it supposedly did to increase the vaccination rate among the region’s children, including training Health Education and Promotion Officers (HEPO) and Barangay Health Workers (BHW) “to capacitate them in conducting social mobilization activities and correcting vaccine misinformation and disinformation.”
But is that enough?
The proliferation of fake news during the previous administration, according to former Health secretary Janette Garin, significantly undermined public vaccine confidence, contributing to the low immunization rates in Western Visayas.
In his July 22 State of the Nation Address, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. called out the low vaccination rate in Western Visayas.
He said, “Kulang pa sa kalahati ang nababakunahan (less than half of the target number of children has been immunized).”
While DOH Region 6 insisted it conducted various activities promoting vaccination, Garin said misinformation about vaccines, such as unfounded claims of death or illness following vaccination, has severely damaged public trust.
“The way to address it is to confront the elephant in the room,” Garin said.
DOH-6 official statement on the low vaccination rate following the SONA did not address directly the rate cited by the President, nor did it cite the factors that may have contributed to the low rate. For her part, Garin said that at a recent oversight meeting attended by health officials, including DOH Secretary Teodoro Herbosa, “infodemic” or the spread of vaccine disinformation was a key topic of discussion.
The health experts emphasized the need to counter these dangerous myths with factual information, she stressed.
Garin urged the DOH to “walk the talk” in increasing vaccine confidence. She highlighted the necessity for the DOH to actively correct misinformation and promote the proven benefits of vaccination openly.
She warned, “If we continue to see a decline in (vaccination) coverage, we are open to many outbreaks,” citing a recent threat of pertussis in Region 6’s children as a direct consequence of reduced immunization./PN
