A leader of the House of Representatives on Wednesday urged the Department of Health (DOH) to boost its information dissemination campaign on the national vaccination program to increase public confidence in the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine.

In a media forum, House Committee on Health Chair Angelina Tan said the vaccination challenge is to persuade Filipinos to take the Covid-19 vaccine.

Tan said if there are only a ‘few takers” because of existing doubts and uncertainty about the vaccine, then the goal to achieve herd immunity through vaccination won’t happen.

“Since day one, I think naging maayos po ‘yung pag rollout ng ating National Vaccination Program. Maganda ‘yung proseso. Siguro lang, nabigyan ko na rin naman ng diin ito sa DOH, na paigtingin pa nila ‘yung pagpapaliwanag sa ibaba katulong ang local government units (Since day one, I think the rollout of our national vaccination program has been smooth. The process was good. The only thing that needs to be improved on –which I already stressed to the DOH — is how they could convince the grassroots to take it with the help of local government units,” Tan said.

Tan said while she understands the apprehensions of some health care workers on the Chinese vaccine because of the recommendations of the Food and Drug Association (FDA), she encouraged them to read on the studies and published data on CoronaVac.

She, however, noted that vaccination is voluntary and that health workers will not be forced to be inoculated.

“Pag sinabi nilang ‘no’ and they are willing to wait, ginagalang naman iyon (But if they said ‘no and they are willing to wait, then we respect that),” she said.

She also urged the barangay health workers to grab the opportunity to be vaccinated once vaccines are available since they do not have direct contact with Covid-19 patients. (PNA)