GEORGE TOWN – Angkatan Wanita Amanah (Awan) Kelantan is urging the state government to encourage vaccine-hesitant individuals and their children to get their Covid-19 jabs via a grassroots mobilisation campaign to generate greater awareness.
Its vice-chairman, Dr Rohani Ismail, said although the vaccine rejection rate in the state only stands at 2.44% out of the 1.103 million population, Kota Baru must continue providing factual information on the importance of the vaccine, including for adolescents, to address the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Awan Kelantan urges the government to continue to provide information and data to the basic level of society, as well as restrict the spread of news that scares the public,” said Dr Rohani.
“Strict action must be taken against those found guilty of spreading false news.
“We also want the government authorities to continue to intensify the FITTIS-V (find, test, trace, isolate, support and vaccinate) measures as it is a powerful effort to reduce the number of cases of infection that are still at five-figures in this country.”
As the health bureau chairman of the wing, she urged all parents to take advantage of the vaccination programme for 12- to 17-year-olds that are being carried out to help the nation and state move forward.
She pointed out that Kelantan health exco, Dr Izani Husin, had said yesterday that data collected through local leaders found that 27,000 out of a total of 1.103 million people in Kelantan do not want to be vaccinated.
“More than 9,000 people who refused to be vaccinated gave various reasons, including claiming that the vaccine is a ‘Jewish agenda’ and hence, dangerous. The rest did not want to be vaccinated because they have underlying medical conditions,” he had said.
Meanwhile, Amanah’s Women’s wing chief Dr Hafidzah Mustakim told The Vibes that the state cannot accept these numbers as only one-third of those who do not want to be vaccinated are hardcore anti-vaxxers, while the others can still be educated.
“What we need now is education and data understanding because there are people who are up in arms against the vaccine because they think that the vaccine is killing people when actually, the deaths are caused by other issues, such as heart failure - nothing to do with the vaccine.
“There are others who say that their children are not lab rats and hence, must not take the vaccine.
“Because of this misconception, some are not responding to the call to be vaccinated. Some give comments without knowing what the data means and mislead others,” she said.
Hafidzah, who also runs a clinic that conducts vaccinations, said that the response for teen vaccinations in the state has got off to a good start, adding that she hopes more parents will understand how vaccines provide safety and allow their teenage children to be vaccinated as well.
CovidNow reported that 48.9% of all teens in the state have received at least their first dose of the vaccine. Meanwhile, 69.7% of the adult population are fully vaccinated while 78.2% have received their first dose. However, according to Izati, 94% of the adult population has received at least their first dose.
According to Hafidzah, this difference in percentages could be due to the number of Kelantanese who are not residing in the state, but such information is not shown by the Statistics Department and MySejahtera app. – The Vibes, September 30, 2021
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