Eastern Cape celebrates a vaccination milestone, but community vaccine hesitancy still lingers

“There was a young man here,” Graaff-Reinet community leader Sias Smith said. “He worked as a security guard at one of the shops. A few days ago his lift picked him up for work. Young, I tell you. He had the vaccine a few days before. That day he went to work. His supervisor told him he looked sick. They took him to hospital. It was 7am. By 10am he was dead. He had a heart attack.

“It is difficult for us. The feeling here is that we will take our chances with the virus. Just here, three people have died after getting the vaccine. Many people around here are not keen to go. The Department of Health is doing a good job of telling us where and when we must go, but we are still afraid.

“They should give us a piece of paper with the vaccine to tell us the ingredients and the side effects, like what you get when you buy pills at the chemist.”

On Friday the superintendent-general of the Eastern Cape Department of Health, Dr Rolene Wagner said: “This morning we were congratulated by the Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla, for being the number one province in giving vaccinations. It is thanks to you (the people of the province) and the healthcare professionals that we made this important milestone.

“We mention that the journey is not over yet, we need you to advise others to get vaccinated because it is important in getting our lives back: back to work, back to school for children, back to places of worship and back to respecting our customs and cultures as we always did.

“We ask that you help us reach those who have not vaccinated yet by telling them these two key messages: Getting vaccinated is safe and it works. Getting vaccinated protects you and your loved ones,” she said.

According to the latest adverse event report by the department relating to vaccinations, 23 deaths of vaccinated people were reported in the province, with 10, in the Chris Hani District (including Komani, Cradock and Middelburg), being the highest number in one district.  The total number of adverse reports filed, relating to vaccine side effects, was 336, with 244 filed in the Buffalo City metro.

According to the report, 22 of the 23 deaths occurred within 30 days after vaccination. The mean age of the deceased was 71 and in most cases death occurred about a day after the vaccine.

Eighteen cases were investigated and found to be coincidental and four are still under investigation.

Lungile Nxube said the Makana community was fighting a battle against fake news and misinformation but said this was also a consequence of community organisations and civil society being shut out of the local command councils.

“There is great interest in getting the vaccine. The problem is with the wrong information being spread about the side effects. I don’t think enough is being done to address this. There is a lack of intersectoral cooperation. And the Department of Health is not communicating properly. There must be more public participation,” he said. 

“Even the municipal command council did not invite all the stakeholders in the community.”

A community leader in Nelson Mandela Bay, Thembisile Nogampule, said the numbers of people getting vaccines had been dropping.

“But we have a strategy. We use a loudhailer to talk to the community and encourage them for the vaccine. We have two teams at the hall where we work. Team A and Team B. When it is time for my team we give the message to people that they must take the vaccine.

“People are getting messages on their phones that if they take the vaccine, they will die two years later. We spend hours with them. You sit down with the family and you tell them why it is not true.

“We always said to the Department of Health that you must use people in your community to spread the word. This is what I am worried about when other people come here into our community to talk about vaccines.”

Khaya Sodidi, from the nurses’ union Denosa, said at last count about 80% of the health workers in the province had been vaccinated against Covid-19.

“That is a very good outcome for us. Some refused for traditional or religious reasons. But it is not compulsory,” he said.

Last week the executive mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, Nqaba Bhanga, said the turnout by municipal officials at the wellness centre for the vaccine was very low. Only 146 out of 7,000 staff members employed by the municipality had arrived to get vaccinated. 

“Our site can vaccinate between 100 and 150 people per day, so we don’t understand why people are reluctant,” Bhanga said. He added that he had taken into account that some workers had already been vaccinated with the general population.

“We are once again urging our staff members and residents not to listen to the fake news out there about vaccines,” he said. 

The metro has lost 36 staff members and councillors to Covid-19.

On Monday the metro had 3,062 active cases and 1,220 newly identified infections. Bhanga said he believed this number could be much higher as the Eastern Cape Department of Health was not testing as widely as it used to do.

The Democratic Alliance’s spokesperson for health in the province, Jane Cowley, said it should be pointed out that the province was still fourth in terms of the number of people vaccinated.

“The Eastern Cape Department of Health is notorious for the mismanagement of statistics. While we are progressing fairly well, we are nowhere near the original target of vaccinating 70% (approximately 4.8 million people) by the end of October. DM/MC