FIGHTING THE VIRUS

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/07/04/fighting-the-virus/

We get vaccinated so we may develop immunity to a given infection, which happens when the vaccinated person’s body learns to make antibodies against the organism that gives rise to that infection. If, however, many or most people around us are not vaccinated, they have no antibodies against an infection and are able to pass on the infection. That means that even vaccinated persons have an uphill task maintaining immunity and it isn’t long before they succumb and get infected, regardless of the vaccination. 

In the case of Pakistan, the Chinese vaccine against Covid-19 that we are getting, while it works, apparently does not have as high a rate of success as some others out there, and even of those out there no vaccine is able to completely prevent the disease. It is therefore proportionately important to take precautions as recommended, such as wearing a mask and avoiding contact with large groups of people, particularly indoors. 

The other aid to immunity, which goes hand in hand with individual vaccination, is herd immunity. This means that when the majority of the population acquires immunity to a disease, even those who do not have immunity are protected because the people they encounter are most of them not passing on the infection. The way to acquire this is to vaccinate the majority. 

This is not happening in Pakistan.

While the vaccination campaign here appears to be better organized than most other government efforts, it has not managed to reach the bulk of the population. Vaccinations are available for all eligible persons but they are not easily accessible; many people have to travel inconvenient distances to be vaccinated. It also means that all or even most eligible persons are not convinced that they require vaccinations.

There are many rumours doing the rounds, dominant among which are those that say that anybody who receives the vaccine is likely to kick the bucket at the end of two years. The other is that the vaccine alters a person’s DNA and should therefore be avoided. Yet another is that the vaccine renders people sterile, which means that it makes them unable to have children. Other rumours say that these vaccinations are a Western plot, a means of controlling the world, and of course there is the inevitable opinion that vaccines go against the Will of God, that had He wanted us not to get covid-19 He would not have created the virus. There are also those who doubt the origin of the virus itself, saying that it is manmade and therefore some kind of a vague conspiracy towards some mysterious end.

Such rumours are of course also rife in other countries, but this is about Pakistan where illiteracy and ignorance kill as many as does this virus and others.

The result of these rumours is something that almost every relatively well-to-do household can report: a reluctance on the part of its workers, the cook, the cleaner, and so on, to be vaccinated, and if not an outright reluctance almost always a complete indifference to receiving the shots. This is also how it is almost throughout the rural population. Also, when someone is willing to be vaccinated, they require someone to register them, since many such persons are illiterate and unable to handle the process. Perhaps the registeration can be done at the desk at the centres rather than online? 

It has now been approximately a year-and-a-half since the first known case of covid-19 was recorded in Pakistan, and we are very far from achieving herd immunity against the disease, even though the rate of infection appears to have gone down.

It is obviously not just this vaccine that has attracted such rumours, others too have suffered because of them, specifically the polio vaccine. Those who administer that vaccine have on several occasions been attacked and even killed. As a result, Pakistan is one of only two countries that has been unable to stamp out that devastating illness. The other is our neighbour, Afghanistan.

The way around this problem is not simple. Illiteracy does not seem to be the only barrier since such views are also not unusual in the United States either. Perhaps it is the quality of education that is at fault? In the US another barrier to vaccination is an inflated sense of personal or civil rights, that makes some people bristle at being made to do anything as a group. That cannot be the case here, since for most people in Pakistan civil rights is an unknown aspect of existence, a great pity in general.

What is most likely driving the resistance here is an ingrained suspicion of ‘The West’, strengthened by our colonial past and the more recent alleged attempts of the US to capture bin Laden via Dr. Shakil Afridi.

The other far greater culprit is likely to be the right-wing conservative segment of society, from where most of the irrational fears of the West appear to stem. They have many platforms, among which the Friday congregation is always a major one. Other than that, word of mouth, and social media are major culprits.

It’s hard to figure out what to do about this. Penalise those who spread such rumours? That just does not seem right. Clamp down on Friday congregations? As impossible as a clampdown on social media.

Penalties are in the hands of those in power, and those in power come with their own views and their own axes to grind. That means there is no guarantee of the penalty being directed at the right targets.

At the end of the day, the only thing that offers any hope is not just education, but a scientific, rational education, one based on proof and facts, which by no means suggests that the humanities should be rejected in academics. Absolutely not. Humanities subjects are crucial, but they should be supplemented with a necessary and hefty dose of reason, fact and science. In the final analysis that is the only way forward, and even that is no guarantee that the population of any given country will do the right thing.