AMMAN — In
Jordan, awareness about COVID-19 risks is increasingly overshadowed by the
spread of vaccine misinformation.
While some have bought into conspiracy
theories about the
vaccine, others fear its possible side effects, among other
things.
اضافة اعلان
Abeer Shishtawi, 48,
told
Jordan News that she has a phobia of doctors, vaccinations, and needles.
“Honestly, I am afraid
of these things.
I do not usually visit doctors or take injections,” she said. “Some
people received the
COVID-19 vaccine and things did not work well with them.
I
know people who died, experienced side effects and complications, or had
strokes after taking the vaccine.”
Shishtawi said that as
a housewife, she rarely goes out to public places that require proof of
vaccination.
A 31-year-old teacher who
spoke to
Jordan News on condition of anonymity said that she does not
only follow local and regional outlets but is also up to date with global news about
the vaccine.
“At first, when I read
about the origin of COVID-19, many stakeholders in America and China said that
the disease could be a biological weapon, a conspiracy, or just a virus that
have arisen,” she said.
“I feel that people’s minds are being manipulated … I
think that some political aspects lie behind COVID-19 vaccination.
They are
just doing experiments.” She also deemed
COVID-19 vaccines a lost cause, given that the disease is an “ever-mutating
virus.”
“Information about the
vaccine is available everywhere. You can find it on YouTube, news agencies’
websites, and Facebook. All you have to do is to search,” she said.
She said she would
rather get tested on a weekly basis because “the pandemic will not take so
long”.
Over the course of the
pandemic, officials condemned the government and the Ministry of Health’s
efforts to raise awareness about COVID-19 vaccines.
Adel Belbeisi, the
Ministry of Health’s secretary general for epidemiology and communicable disease,
told
Jordan News over the phone that the ministry “left no media outlet
untapped”, made videos and pamphlets to raise awareness about COVID-19 vaccinations,
and paid visits to those in charge of remote areas, including village chiefs, to
help them “encourage their people to take the vaccine”.
“The number of people
taking the vaccine witnesses both increases and drops,” said Belbeisi.
“We do
not judge it on a daily basis … if we look at numbers by the week, about
320,000 and 330,000 people got vaccinated during the last week and the week
before last, respectively, compared to some half a million three weeks ago,” he
added.
According to Belbeisi,
these numbers are “good”, but it is hoped that they will improve.
“Until now, we have
not forced anyone to receive the vaccine. If people want to get vaccinated,
they are most welcome.
Otherwise, there are other procedures for working individuals
including conducting the PCR test twice a week,” Belbeisi said.
“Currently, there is
no mandatory vaccination … and there are no discussions about making it so,” he
added.
Belbeisi noted that
soon, people would have to show vaccination certificates or 72-hour negative
PCR tests to enter any place.
Mohannad Al-Nsour,
member of the National Epidemiological Committee and executive director of the
Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network, told
Jordan News that the vaccination
process in Jordan is one of the best in the region.
Nsour said that the kingdom
has succeeded in securing sufficient quantities of COVID-19 vaccines and administering
them to people.
“The rate of coverage
is very good. We aspire to be better.
However, we should appreciate the
achievement and the good progress that has been made,” he said. “As a committee
member and an expert, I am very happy with the ministry’s efforts.”
Nsour proposed
developing a program to raise awareness among people above 60 — a group that is
most at risk of contracting COVID-19, across all governorates.
“We have to be
effective in conveying our outreach message to citizens wherever they are — in
villages, rural areas, camps, or the Badia,” he said.
Ibrahim Bdour, former
MP and member of the board of trustees at the National Center for Human Rights,
said in a phone interview with
Jordan News that people in general are
not convinced of taking the vaccine.
“Convention comes
first from having trust in the vaccine’s provider, i.e. the government, as well
as in the media,” Bdour added.
Bdour noted that to
push for inoculation, he suggested linking the vaccine with reopening sectors,
which makes getting vaccinated a precondition for business owners to resume
running their shops.
According to Bdour, 50
percent of people above 60 have not received the vaccine, which poses a problem
given that this group is at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19.
He pointed out that
lately, less people are getting vaccinated, which drove the government to issue
Defense Order No. 32, “put pressure on people”, “force them indirectly” to take
the vaccination.
Bdour said that, if
people were prevented from going to their workplaces, or students from entering
their universities, they would “involuntarily” register for the vaccine, but
“oddly enough, the number of people getting vaccinated was reduced to half”.
Bdour noted that, at
first, the number of people getting vaccinated stood at 100,000 a day, then it
dropped by 50 percent and continued to decrease to 35,000 when Defense Order 32
was issued.
“Now, it is a tragedy
that only 8,000 people receive the first dose per day, which I think is a very
poor number,” he said
Bdour said that people
feel safe now that the number of daily COVID-19 cases is decreasing.
Some 85 percent of hospitalized
COVID-19 patients were not vaccinated, while the remaining 15 percent received
the Sinopharm vaccine, according to Bdour.
On the other hand,
Yayha Khreisat, head of the No to Obligatory Vaccination campaign and president
of Arab Council Association for Prosthetic Eyes, previously told
Jordan News that Defense Order No. 32 indirectly obliges citizens to take the COVID-19
vaccine by making it a prerequisite to getting back to workplaces and
educational institutes, as well as to receiving medical treatment.
“This is considered as
coercion and it violates Jordan’s constitution in terms of restricting Jordanians’
freedoms and rights to movement, education, health, and medical care,” Khreisat
said.
Khreisat added that
foreigners arriving in Jordan are allowed to undergo PCR tests that are valid
up to 10 days, as opposed to nationals, whose PCR tests are only valid for
three days.
“A PCR test should not
be conducted twice a week given that from a scientific perspective, COVID-19
symptoms only manifest after a minimum of 10 days of getting infected,”
Khreisat said.
Ameen Al-Otleh,
community development officer at Misbar fact-checking platform, said in a phone
interview with
Jordan News that
misinformation regarding the pandemic
and the vaccine are widespread across the Arab world and Jordan.
“Ever since COVID-19
vaccination became available, people have started a campaign against it.
This
campaign was based on questioning the vaccine’s safety and promoting the
conspiracy theory,” he added.
According to Otleh,
some rumors about the vaccine said that it may contain electronic chips, cause
death or infertility, or turn people into zombies or crocodiles.
“As a proactive step,
we had a partnership with the United Nations through the ‘Verified’ initiative
that aims at providing people with true information about everything related to
COVID-19,” he said.
Otleh said that under
this partnership, Misbar publishes two videos a month to raise awareness about COVID-19
and the vaccine.
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