Convincing communities that vaccines are safe and countering misinformation is a major challenge to public health efforts all around the world. Anti Covid-19 vaccination disinformation is spreading and conspiracy theories are rife. The more transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19 has increased the urgency of vaccinating as many people as quickly as possible. Yet, only around 2% of Africans have been fully vaccinated so far, mostly due to a shortage of vaccines. But a sizeable number of people are also reluctant to get vaccinated. This is a great cause for concern in countries like Malawi, where COVID-19 infections and deaths have risen sharply in the past few weeks.
In this Healthy Developments podcast we hear about some innovative ways of overcoming those challenges in Malawi.