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Ablaye Diouf Sarr, minister of health and social action (to the right), just before getting vaccinated against Covid-19, February 23, 2021. SEYLLOU/AFP
” It is done ! “, headlined the newscast of 20 hours, Thursday, February 25. The national channel of senegal, RTS, opened his edition on the head of the State, Macky Sall, vaccinated a few hours earlier against the Covid-19, at the presidential palace. A gesture scrutinized since the start of the campaign vaccine, on Tuesday, after the receipt by the Senegal 200 000 doses from the chinese laboratory Sinopharm. All afternoon, the banquet hall was transformed into a hospital day, welcoming a parade of members of the government who came to receive their first injection.
Follow our mini-series on Health in Africa : Senegal, the family planning, an even greater challenge in a time of Covid-19
The president and his ministers are hoping to lead by example and motivate the people to do as they do. Because, at the time when the country is facing a second wave of the epidemic to be more severe than the first, the Senegalese seem dubious, and even, for some, frankly, other, vis-à-vis the vaccine. According to a survey conducted in early February by the Office of prospective economic, a think tank affiliated with the State, only 15.1 % of respondents believe that vaccination is the best solution to overcome the Covid-19 and barely one in two said she was ready to get vaccinated.
professor Moussa Seydi, head of the department of infectious diseases at the hospital Fann, Dakar, to assure him yet, “even people who are not at risk should avoid being a springboard and it is only by vaccination of what you may have herd immunity, and return to a normal life,” says the physician-researcher, for which he is also an act of solidarity.
Hoaxes clubs
But this still does not seem to be the perception in the country, which deplores 852 deaths due to Covid-19. In several videos, the Senegalese targeted by hoaxes clubs refuse to receive the vaccine, and sometimes go so far as to take the leak. “Some would prefer to die rather than be vaccinated, shows Makhfouss, one of the each other the most famous in the country. And among the passers-by as we are trapped, some have accepted the vaccine, but it could not broadcast their testimony because they do not want to appear infront of the camera. “
according To a study in four african countries (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Benin, and Cameroon), carried out within the framework of the research project Coronavirus anthropology, Africa, and still in progress, the causes of this distrust are multiple. For some, it is the fear of side effects or the preference for other therapeutic strategies that are in play. Others, however, go so far as to link the vaccine to a conspiracy western, designed to kill or Africans, or to render them sterile. The thesis of a population control by means of the injection of chips or nanoparticles is also advanced.
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But, for Karim Diop, secretary general of the regional Centre for research and training to support Fann, the rejection of the people was mainly, and more simply, by needle phobia. “The lack of acceptance of the vaccine is not specific to the coronavirus. Patients say they are healed when they see us come up with a syringe in the hands “, has fun with the doctor of pharmacy.
in order To deconstruct the received ideas and to reassure the Senegalese, the medical staff is mounted to the front, in making himself vaccinated, but also in communicating in the media. An exercise in freestyle at the time the news senegalese is largely dominated by the case of the rape charge brought against Ousmane Sonko, one of the main opponents of the power.
Associate influencers
professor Seydi, very listened to in the country, so did the tower of trays on the television. The effectiveness of the vaccine has been proven in international scientific journals, he reiterates the question of whether the public at large senegalese. “The side effects will eventually go away, and there was a decline in perfectly sufficient for ten weeks. No vaccine has been implicated in a death, while the Covid-19 continues to kill, he argued. Now, the Senegal to conduct its own monitoring to assess the tolerance to the product. “
the ministry of health and public action also plans to launch an offensive communication. According to Mamadou Ndiaye, director of the prevention, the strategy will focus on ” community engagement, the use of community radio and mass communication “. From the start of the campaign vaccine, the president of the national Council of the elders of the Senegal or the Council of traditional communicators have been seen to receive their first injection. On Thursday evening, some 12,000 people had been vaccinated.
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After the medical corps, the people over 60 years of age or with comorbidities will be given priority, or about $ 3.5 million. To achieve this target, nearly 7 million doses will be received “in the next few weeks,” assured the head of State.
Still does it take to overcome the last resistance. The guides of the religious brotherhoods could help to restore confidence. The caliph general of Medina Baye, to Kaolack (centre), leader of a large brotherhood tijane, was vaccinated on Thursday and has already invited “skeptics” to follow his example. The actor Makhfouss recommended him to the ministry of health to associate influencers, become a major relay of opinion among the young people.
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