South Africa's vaccine rollout limped into phase 2 last Monday and by Saturday evening 162,281 people had received a first Pfizer dose. In this phase the government aims to vaccinate around 16.5 million people, predominantly those aged 60 and above.
Phase 1 has missed its target of inoculating 500,000 of South Africa's 1.25 million healthcare workers by mid-May.
It is still our hope that the pace will pick up and reach a couple of million people before the third wave of the pandemic reaches its peak.
However, of concern is that there is still a high level of vaccination hesitancy across the country. On Saturday, this paper reported on a number of people who vehemently said they would not be taking the vaccine. Among the reasons offered were that the government is testing medicine on them as if they were animals; there are no media reports of anyone who has survived the virus by taking the vaccine; the vaccine has been around since February yet infection figures are on the rise again; people overseas have had some side-effects; and the government is trying to reduce the population through vaccinating.
It is clear that most of the anti-vaccine sentiments are based on both misinformation and disinformation. The former is just false. The latter is more worrying as it is false information deliberately spread with malicious intention. Based on disinformation, some cellphone towers were vandalised in KwaZulu-Natal last year based on the fictitious belief in a link between 5G technology and the coronavirus.
The government needs to move in with speed to counter the disinformation that is breeding vaccine hesitancy. All the myths need to be busted. Citizens need to understand that prevention is infinitely better than cure, and hence vaccination is the best way to go.
In addition to that, wearing a mask in public, sanitising hands and maintaining social distance should continue, whether someone is vaccinated or not.
We salute those public leaders, including judges, church heads, sporting figures and traditional leaders, who have taken the jab in public. Their stance will help bring trust that vaccination is the way to go.
Fellow citizens, let us encourage one another to take the jab as soon as it is available so that we can reach "herd immunity" as quickly as possible. We urge government officials to ensure that, while striving to roll out the vaccine smoothly, they put equal effort into fighting disinformation.
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