Per­sons with con­cerns about the safe­ty of COVID-19 vac­ci­na­tion will have an op­por­tu­ni­ty to have their ques­tions an­swered and fears al­layed by med­ical pro­fes­sion­als, with the avail­abil­i­ty of The Vac­cine Hes­i­tan­cy Hot­line—a joint project of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Non-Com­mu­ni­ca­ble Dis­ease Al­liance (TTNC­DA) and Pan Amer­i­can Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion (PA­HO).

The hot­line, which will op­er­ate for an ini­tial pe­ri­od of two months, is aimed at pro­vid­ing an av­enue for per­sons to speak to a doc­tor re­gard­ing their con­cerns about the COVID-19 vac­cine. The hot­line, 607-VAXX (8299), is staffed by vol­un­teer physi­cians and hot­line op­er­a­tors and is op­er­a­tional Mon­day-Fri­day, from 1 pm to 7 pm. 

A state­ment from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Non-Com­mu­ni­ca­ble Dis­ease Al­liance (TTNC­DA) ex­plains the hope is per­sons who are now vac­cine hes­i­tant or dis­in­ter­est­ed would re­con­sid­er the vac­cine once their con­cerns are ad­dressed on an in­di­vid­ual lev­el.

The TTNC­DA quotes re­cent da­ta pub­lished by the Cen­tre for Dis­ease Con­trol (CDC), which notes that un­vac­ci­nat­ed peo­ple had a 6.1 times greater risk of test­ing pos­i­tive for COVID-19, and an 11.3 times greater risk of dy­ing from the dis­ease.

“This is of par­tic­u­lar con­cern for the TTNC­DA, as per­sons liv­ing with non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases (NCDs) such as di­a­betes, can­cers, car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease and res­pi­ra­to­ry con­di­tions have been seen to be at greater risk of suc­cumb­ing to the virus,” the re­lease says.

“In al­most every coun­try in the world, vac­cine hes­i­tan­cy is dri­ven by an abun­dance of mis­in­for­ma­tion and dis­in­for­ma­tion about the COVID-19 vac­cine from sources with lit­tle to no cred­i­bil­i­ty. We be­lieve that giv­ing hes­i­tant per­sons an op­por­tu­ni­ty to speak one-on-one with a physi­cian, their par­tic­u­lar con­cern can be ad­dressed,” it added.

The TTNC­DA is en­cour­ag­ing per­sons who are vac­cine hes­i­tant to reach out to their trust­ed pri­ma­ry health care physi­cian to get cred­i­ble in­for­ma­tion about COVID-19 vac­ci­na­tion.

“If this re­source is not avail­able to them, due to fi­nan­cial, mo­bil­i­ty or oth­er con­straints, the project pro­vides and fa­cil­i­tates ac­cess to a doc­tor by call­ing our hot­line,” the group says.

The project is sup­port­ed by the Pan Amer­i­can Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion (PA­HO) and has two com­po­nents.

1. The Vac­cine Hes­i­tan­cy Hot­line – The hot­line is staffed by vol­un­teer hot­line op­er­a­tors and physi­cians. The hot­line al­lows callers to have their con­cerns about the COVID-19 vac­cine ad­dressed by these doc­tors. The hot­line is op­er­a­tional Mon­day to Fri­day from 1pm to 7pm. The hot­line hours of op­er­a­tion will be in­creased in the com­ing days.

2. So­cial Me­dia Cam­paign – The cam­paign in­volves post­ing of ed­u­ca­tion­al ma­te­ri­als, ad­dress­ing com­mon­ly asked ques­tions about COVID-19 and the vac­cine. An em­pha­sis is al­so placed on the im­pact of COVID-19 on Per­sons liv­ing with Non-Com­mu­ni­ca­ble Dis­eases (PLWNCDs)

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About the TTNC­DA

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Non-Com­mu­ni­ca­ble Dis­ease Al­liance (TTNC­DA) is an or­ga­ni­za­tion guid­ed by a vi­sion to be the lead co­or­di­na­tor and voice of civ­il so­ci­ety in the fight against non­com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases (NCDs). Mem­bers of the TTNC­DA are Trinidad and To­ba­go Can­cer So­ci­ety, Di­a­betes As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go, Trinidad and To­ba­go Heart Foun­da­tion, Heart­beat In­ter­na­tion­al of Trinidad and To­ba­go, Caribbean Sport and De­vel­op­ment Agency, Trinidad and To­ba­go Coali­tion for To­bac­co Con­trol, Trinidad and To­ba­go As­so­ci­a­tion of Nu­tri­tion­ists and Di­eti­cians, Fam­i­ly Plan­ning As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go and Chest and Heart As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go.