Srinagar: Realising the need for widespread awareness on COVID-19 vaccines to the people, Ehsaas Saturday kick started an outreach program in parts of Srinagar city.
As part of outreach, locals of Mir Behri and Dal were imparted awareness. The outreach serves as a means to bridge the gap between information and understanding, said an activist.
An interactive session between the people and subject expert Dr. Aarthi, a physician with specialization in internal medicine and geriatrics from USA was organized. This session was moderated by Sadaf Firdous, coordinator Ehsaas International.
The session helped in assessing their readiness towards understanding of the existing COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccine myths and misinformation, which are quite prevalent, were voiced by the people as the predominant concern for hesitancy.
The experts urged people to get vaccinated against the virus. A rumor about the vaccines causing infertility and the source of this rumor remains largely untraceable, even though it seems to be widely propagated by word of mouth, the expert observed.
Sadly no, many still continue to question the existence of a pandemic and state that they have not personalized a COVID-19 experience in their family or friends, which is.
Today’s two-way interactive session supported by facts and evidence allowed for community level engagement between healthcare workers and helped familiarize the people with vaccine safety, efficacy and side effects. The locals expressed willingness to engage in discourse and reasoning.
This engagement is an effective method to facilitate vaccine readiness and helps us get a better idea of the barriers that need to be overcome in order to achieve optimal COVID-19 immunization for community protection, said an expert.
Also, outreach program will serve to focus on preparing them mentally for vaccination while sharing information on how to stay safe during the ongoing pandemic.
The programme was conducted by Ehsaas Trust International in association with Mir Behri Welfare Society at Divine Coaching Centre.
