General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr Titus Beyuo, has revealed that it will be “foolhardy” for doctors within the various health facilities in the country to resist taking the COVID-19 vaccines.
According to him, there is a concern among healthcare workers in general, as the Association is confronted with doctors and nurses who are vaccine-hesitant, along with “other cadre of health workers”.
Dr Beyuo noted that there are some healthcare workers, who for religious reasons, disinformation and conspiracy theories have various belief systems about these vaccines and the Association has been trying to encourage people to take it. He highlighted that in the coming days, the GMA will be releasing in detail the impact of COVID “on us in a year as we are approaching what looks like an obvious surge in the cases again”.
“For a year, when you look at the impact on doctors, it will be foolhardy for any doctor to decide not to take any vaccine. But we are not focusing only on doctors, we are looking at all other cadre of healthcare workers. I think it is the generality of the population, but we are particularly concerned about healthcare workers because we are seen as role models and people look up to us in our communities…”
Dr Titus Beyuo
Dr Beyuo questioned how healthcare personnel are supposed to encourage the general public to take the vaccines if they are not doing so themselves. He emphasized that healthcare workers are perhaps the most vulnerable people who could easily get this infection.
The GMA General Secretary expressed the importance of a collaboration to educate the public and to also educate its “members to be champions in the communities to help improve our vaccine uptake”.
“Believe me, it is one of our surest tool in overcoming this pandemic.”
Dr Titus Beyuo
Vaccine hesitancy among health workers
Commenting on whether the vaccine hesitancy by some doctors could be as a result of an underlying problem with the vaccine itself, Dr Beyuo discredited the claim and insisted that the vaccines are safe. He iterated that the hesitancy can be traced back to the personal convictions of these doctors.
“The doctors come from a population and they have their own belief system. Whatever you believe in the community, there are doctors who may also have that kind of belief. But the signs and evidence we have as of today proves that this vaccine is very safe and we are encouraging everybody to take it…”
Dr Titus Beyuo
Justifying his stance, Dr Beyuo recounted an incident where a group of doctors came up with a petition against the vaccine. He indicated that the GMA at the time, made its position very clear on the matter and “other members who are well-versed in vaccinology also made the signs and facts well-known”.
“Like any society, you will have one or two people who will have this kind of belief system… But to date, we do not have any serious concern for which reason we would want to say that no one should take the vaccine.
Dr Titus Beyuo
Dr Beyuo indicated that the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) regularly publishes any vaccine adverse effects that are reported and it equally has a taskforce that is reviewing all the data available to it. He noted that since the Authority constantly updates its website with information, there isn’t any cause to believe the vaccines are not safe.
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