As at September 2021, less than 4% of Africa’s population has been fully vaccinated, compared with 54% of the US and about 65% of the UK. Low vaccination rates in Africa can be explained by a myriad of reasons – lack of a sustainable supply of vaccines, weak healthcare systems, funding limitations, lack of widespread availability of cold chain storage and distribution systems, and low political will.
However, there is another big reason why vaccination rates are so low – vaccine hesitancy is high. Vaccine hesitancy can be defined as “the delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of vaccine services”. This has been an issue from the commencement of the global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines however, the flames continue to be fanned by the persistent waves of misinformation and disinformation rampant across social media and/or propagated by influencers such as religious leaders and politicians, that then make its way into everyday thinking within local communities.
Low vaccination rates in Africa leave the continent susceptible to new variants of concern (VOC) and a resurgence of COVID-19. In light of the above, Anadach Group and RDAssociates Africa consider Vaccine Hesitancy an important issue – in many African cities people are refusing to get jabbed even when the COVID-19 vaccine is made available to them.
The Anadach Group and RDAssociates Africa have co-hosted a webinar series that commenced in October 2021 where stakeholders such as health workers, faith-based leaders, and community leaders have shared their perspective on this problem, as well as ways that stakeholders across Africa can drive change and reverse this trend.
Our third and final session titled ‘COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Africa - Reimagining the role of key messengers in both traditional and social media, as well as within the highly impacted hospitality & services sector’ will hold on December 9th, 2021 at 1pm UTC / GMT. The flyer with more information on speakers and times in different cities (time zones).
We will hear from the stakeholders many consider to be at the helm of the problem – the media. We will have both traditional and social media representatives such as journalists, influencers, and entertainers on our panel. Additionally, representatives from the services sector will be in attendance as the pandemic has greatly impacted services such as hotels, restaurants, event gatherings, etc.
Please register for this event here -
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZckc-mqrz0uE9OWVN7_xxBA5ObTH4Y...
Kindly share this link with your network and peers.
We expect our final session to be highly enlightening and an impactful end to what has been an eye-opening discussion with stakeholders across the continent, and we hope to see you there!
Recording of this series webinars and presentations are available at:
https://www.anadach.com/covid19vaccinehesitancy
Thank you
Egbe Osifo-Dawodu MD MBA MSc MRCP
Founding Partner, Anadach Group
https://www.anadach.com/
http://twitter.com/anadach
HIFA profile: Egbe Osifo-Dawodu is a Partner of Anadach Group. www.anadach.com http://twitter.com/anadach eosifodawodu AT anadach.com
