Some locals believe the covid-19 vaccine would cause them to drop dead in three years, while others have said the jab would turn their arms magnetic
It is not for lack of infection. The country of 9m has officially recorded more than 37,000 cases and some 600 deaths. But these numbers dramatically understate the disease’s prevalence. In rural areas testing is extremely limited. People diagnosed with covid have sometimes been thrown out of their homes by their families, so few are keen to be tested in any case. The bigger hospitals are nonetheless overwhelmed from time to time when cases surge.
The government, to its credit, also acted quickly to secure supplies of vaccines, mostly donated through Covax, a global programme to get jabs to poor countries. Early last year James Marape, the prime minister, took his shot on national television. Influential church leaders urged their flocks to get their jabs. The government set the modest target of inoculating 20% of the population by the end of 2021.
A tradition of superstition and a belief in sorcery worsen the problem, and add a local twist to the online humbug. Health workers deployed to vaccinate vulnerable people in the near-inaccessible interior of the country report being met with naked hostility. Locals told them they had heard that the vaccine would cause them to drop dead in three years. Others said the jab would turn their arms magnetic. Some believed they were immune because covid was a “white man’s disease”.
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