For two whole months from mid April to May the people of Meghalaya were told how many Covid deaths per day have occurred and which districts the deceased belong to. While the numbers are disturbing they don’t reveal the story behind the numbers. Now an analysis has been carried out by the Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH) Shillong at the behest of the State Health Department on the deaths in East Khasi Hills and whether timely vaccination could have prevented those deaths. Of the 345 deaths in East Khasi Hills, 319 were not vaccinated. Among the fully vaccinated there is not a single death, while 26 deaths occurred to people that received a single dose of the vaccine. This speaks volumes about the importance of the anti-Covid vaccination. The problem is compounded by social media, particularly WhatsApp where conspiracy theories on the Covid vaccination go viral. The tragedy is that even the educated who should have more faith in Science than blind faith in religion are victims of this vaccine hesitancy.
The Health Department has done a commendable by analysing the Covid deaths and consequently finding out the close correlations between vaccination and a life saved. What’s also true of Meghalaya is public hesitancy to be randomly tested for fear of being tested Covid positive. People prefer to live in denial. Even when they do fall sick and develop symptoms, many prefer to self medicate, telling themselves and others that it’s a common cold or influenza that will heal itself. Perhaps the number of deaths could have been prevented through timely health care and hospital admission. The District Administration through the ASHA workers have tried their utmost to reach out to people with the right messages, calling them for random testing and trying to convince especially the elderly to vaccinate themselves but to no avail. Meghalaya continues to be the state with the least number of vaccinated individuals.
Despite repeated counselling by contact tracers, those in isolation still do not understand the gravity of the situation and believe they can go out to dispense money from ATMs or for some such errands. Even before receiving the test reports from Umling many returnees are already in contact with family, friends and neighbours, thereby allowing the virus a free rein. But perhaps this is also a learning curve. Now that the Government has set up war rooms at the Block level across the state perhaps there will be better health communication strategies resulting in better outreach. Also the lesson plans on communicating the basics about Covid 19 to Upper Primary and Secondary school students brought out by the Education Department will be an added communication tool. Departmental convergence is a win-win for all – the government and public.
