DURBAN - GETTING vaccinated for Covid-19 does not amount to taking poison and religious leaders should advise their congregants to take the vaccines, Professor Hoosen Vawda told a gathering of leaders in Durban yesterday.
Addressing church leaders who included Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, and Dr Douglas Dziva from the KwaZuluNatal Christian Council (KZNCC), Vawda said that vaccines have been taken before in order to limit the spread of diseases.
He pointed to the times when the human race was battling with the spread of flu and how vaccines had been introduced to limit its impact.
“The Lord has given us the fortitude to develop vaccines. I would appeal that we accept vaccines as a gift from God,” said the professor.
He conceded that there was resistance in some communities to the use of vaccines, but stressed that it was up to religious and church leaders to make sure that their congregants had the correct information on vaccines.
Some of the concerns raised about the Covid-19 vaccines included the quality of the vaccines currently being produced and the rush in which some of them were produced without following the normal procedural protocols for manufacturing a vaccine.
Vawda also stressed that there was no vaccine that was 100% effective.
“That is why there are booster shots that are being taken after we have been vaccinated,” he said.
He added that misinformation and disinformation posed a great challenge to getting buy-in for the use of vaccines.
“Both the misrepresentation of facts from quasi scientific commentators and theological misapplication of scriptures is exacerbating the problem,” said Dr Lucas Ngoetjana.
The KZNCC leadership is conducting workshops and visiting communities in a bid to create a better understanding about the importance of vaccines.
The religious community has been identified in the past as one of the crucial sectors that can assist the government in the roll-out of vaccines.
Pulane Baloyi from the South African Council of Churches said yesterday’s engagement was important as it set the tone for more outreach activities in relation to the use of vaccines.
“We will be reaching out to more communities across the country as we seek to create a better understanding on the importance of using vaccines,” said Baloyi.
She acknowledged that this was a massive task ahead of them but expressed a belief that they would be up to it.
Those at the gathering also acknowledged that many families had been left impoverished as elders had lost jobs during the hard lockdown.
According to the latest statistics from February 8, 16 637 053 million adults have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 in the country.
KwaZulu-Natal is lagging behind the other provinces with only 35.48% (2 561 573 million) of its adult population fully vaccinated.
THE MERCURY