This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Ms. Maryam Tariq, 2nd year MBBS student at Aziz Fatima Medical and Dental College, Faisalabad, Pakistan. She is affiliated with the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writers and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one.
How strange! Seeing people all around you dying in no time, witnessing teeming hospital rooms and tiring shifts of health care staff, understanding the colossal burden on health department of country and foremost knowing that there is no escape as its all over the world, you can’t just fly to other continent, but still not grabbing something that can possibly provide you a shelter, not so stout but the only shelter, in this state of fix.
We all know that we can die anytime but having your subconscious mind validating the fact by giving a visible reason of death- COVID, hits different and hard. As soon as the vaccine was announced doctors suggested getting vaccinated and, in that state, when clearly the most important thing was life, still some people showed hesitancy towards vaccines. Hah! Humans of the next century might laugh at it and might label us as idiots.
Epidemic originated from Wuhan, China and showed its colors all over the world. Almost 70% of people have heard of a conspiracy theory that alleges that powerful people intentionally planned the coronavirus outbreak and Trump constantly cunningly lied. Debate on Simpsons and queer exchange of statements between China and America were hot topics which made an unclear image of pandemic.
These circumstances of rumors exaggerated by the media, along with side effects of AstraZeneca in some people, surely made vaccine dubitation among all. We all witnessed a backlash by some people towards acceptance of vaccine into their body, behind the curtains was the reason that COVID IS NOTHING, which further got strength as soon as they survived first wave and after that they completely turned a blind eye towards number of COVID cases, fatality rate or variant severity. Some people were just afraid of the panic created by the media and unable to understand it actually covered up their symptoms.
A large number of people did get vaccinated when it was made an obligation from the government and when they interacted with health care staff and vaccinated people. Hence the government is playing a pivotal role over here along with health care staff. Good talk or awareness meetings with family physicians could have improved the behavior of people towards vaccines. Interactive awareness sessions arranged by different organizations as well by the government must have proved effective in making people understand how vaccines work.
Asking people about their concerns regarding vaccines and focusing on that while creating awareness is also of great importance especially in countries where literacy rate isn’t remarkable. Making people understand the importance of vaccines in combating other diseases in the past, sharing different researches and explaining to them the stance of health care providers over it will help people to drop the enchanting rumors that prevail so rapidly by news channels as well as by the social media. Thus, the use of proper counselling to eradicate the fear from the orthodox pattern of thinking of people will develop a constructive response towards the vaccine as a tool for combating COVID.
About the author
Maryam Tariq, 2nd year MBBS student at Aziz Fatima Medical and Dental College, Faisalabad, Pakistan. She is inclined towards art and literature and finds it convenient to depict her feelings in English although it’s her second language. She has been writing since school life and also has an Instagram account for that (@whispers_of_hope9). She is also publication director in IFMSA-PAKISTAN AFMDC-LC and currently working on the magazine of her LC “The West End (Edition II)”. She is fond of reading and also planning to publish her poetry next year as well.
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