‘Transparency key to addressing vaccine trust deficiency’

GEORGE TOWN – Covid-19 vaccine registrations among the Malaysian population lingering at 32.2% points to just one thing – that there is a trust deficit among the public when it comes to information about the vaccine.

Senior consultant paediatrician Datuk Dr Amar-Singh HSS said the issue is not only happening in Malaysia, but also in other countries like Hong Kong, South Korea and the United States.

“People are so polarised because they do not trust mainstream information anymore. They think governments are trying to hide information.

“And governments are not as transparent as we like them to be, unfortunately.

“That is why some people listen to peer-to peer-messaging and this information needs to be verified, but at the same time it is difficult to verify. 

“Worse still, most people don’t even bother to verify and this information gets forwarded multiple times,” he said.

He also said that the trust deficit is twofold – one involves difficulty keeping up with the overwhelming flow of new information bombarding the public.

“Two, there is also a lot of fake news making its rounds through social media and social messaging,” said Dr Amar.

The former head of the paediatric department at the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital in Ipoh, Perak however commended the Health Ministry (MoH) for revealing side effects of the vaccine to the public recently.

“This is a good way forward to improve the trust deficit in people, but I believe more details should be provided about the breakdown of severe side effects so the public will know what is happening.

“If somebody is uncertain (about the vaccine), MoH should offer some guidance, talk to them in reasonable ways,” he said.

On Saturday, Health Minister Dr Adham Baba revealed that there were 25,770 reports of side effects from the 700,000 that had received their first and second doses of the Covid-19 vaccine as of 31 March. 

A total of 99.5% were reported to be mild while 0.5% (129 reports) of them, severe. 

The mild side effects experienced included pain at the injection site, joint pain, fever, headache, fatigue, vomiting and nausea.

Dr Amar said that it will be good for the health minister to also release details on the severe side effects experienced by the 129 people.

“The only way to address the trust deficit is to be honest,” he said, adding that countries like New Zealand, South Korea, Norway and the United Kingdom released weekly data about the vaccines.

“Countries that released data to the public about possible serious side effects after vaccination gained a lot of media attention. 

“But it is these countries that we trust more because they share information with the public.

“Just telling us ‘don’t worry’ is not good enough. 

“We have to ‘not worry’ based on truth and reality and it must be based on data. 

“I’ve never said that to my patients when I break bad news not to worry. 

“We give them hope but also tell them what needs to be done based on best evidence,” he said.

He also asked MoH to look into states with large rural communities as the number of registration for vaccination has been low in these states. 

“There may be some religious concerns that we are not aware of, and if there are, we need to address it.

“Working with religious leaders and using infographics may work in these areas. 

“We could  circulate them widely through different networks or via peer-to-peer messaging. 

“We need more dialogue where people can ask pertinent questions about the vaccines and we must not run away from answering difficult questions.

“We must face them, and if we don’t know the answer then we should honestly say that we don't know.” he said, adding that information and knowledge about vaccines is growing and some answers will only be available in the coming months.

Dr Amar said that getting more people vaccinated as soon as possible is the only way to see a drop in Covid-19 infections, as seen in the UK where more than 50% of its adults received their first dose. – The Vibes, April 5, 2021