Media practitioners in Jos Plateau have been encouraged to be advocates for creating awareness on Covid-19 by providing ‘transformative and reformative’ information to the general public so as to discourage fake news and misinformation around the vaccine uptake in Nigeria
This was made known at a media Parley today in Jos Plateau state, organized by Comrade Friday Bako, in tandem with the Covid-19 Vaccine Public Awareness, Vaccines safety and effectiveness campaign with support from MacArthur Foundation and the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD).
Comr Friday Bako, Implementing Partner of CITAD/MacArthur Foundation COVID-19 Vaccine Public Awareness Project, said that the global figures of the pandemic as of Tuesday 26th July 2022 stands at 576,590,997 cases and that of Plateau State which is 10,279 confirmed cases, 75 Deaths and 21 persons on admission is an indication that the virus is still around hence the need for the citizens to be vaccinated so as to achieve herd immunity.
He stated that the ongoing COVID-19 Vaccine Public Awareness Campaign was geared toward “Carrying out public education on the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 Vaccines to tackle vaccine resistance and hesitancy which in turn will increase the rate of vaccination in the State.
“To also monitor the deployment, distribution and use of the vaccine in order to promote accountability and transparency in the management of the vaccine working with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and the state level counterparts as well as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) as well as other civil society actors working on health sector accountability.”
“And to increase the level of information about access points for getting vaccination working closely with the State Primary Health Agencies.” He stated.
Comrade Bako noted that the critical role being played by the Media who are opinion molders, gatekeepers and sources of accurate information as well as their ability to hold those in authority accountable necessitated the parley, as fake news, conspiracy theories and other false claims, not scientific proven have adversely affected the uptake of COVID-19 Vaccines.
Also commending the efforts of CITAD a Nigerian Non-Governmental Organization and MacArthur Foundation an International Non-Governmental Organization with Headquarters in Chicago, United States, having assisted his campaign in conducting town hall meetings, Radio Programmes for continuous engagement with public health Experts especially those in Vaccine production and other critical stakeholders to increase awareness on the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 Vaccines, drama play, Jingles, and banners placed at strategic parts of the State all in an effort to sensitize the public on the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 Vaccines and the need to be vaccinated.
He admonished the media as watchdog of society to be relentless in their efforts in disseminating accurate information to change the perception of the public about the COVID-19 Vaccines.
“It is important that the media rise up to its responsibility of feeding the public with accurate information about COVID-19 and the vaccines by dispelling fake news that has heightened hesitancy. We look forward to working closely with the media to achieve the objectives of this project.”
“We also want to call on the general public to ensure they get their information, especially concerning the COVID-19 Vaccines from reliable sources such as the WHO, NPHCDA, NCDC and other health professionals to avoid being misinformed.” Friday Bako further stated.
